Medieval verse romances: Arthurian romance
The matter of Britain
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
In his Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth “invented history” by drawing on
classical authors, the Bible, and Celtic tradition to create the story of a British kingdom, to some
extent paralleling that of Israel. He described the rise of the British people to glory in the reigns
of Uther Pendragon and Arthur, then the decline and final destruction of the kingdom, with the
exile of the British survivors and their last king, Cadwalader. Romances that have Arthur or
some of his knights as main characters were classified as matière de Bretagne by Jehan Bodel
(fl. 1200) in a well-known poem. There is in this “matter of Britain” a certain amount of material
ultimately based on the belief—probably Celtic in origin—in an otherworld into which men can
penetrate, where they can challenge those who inhabit it or enjoy the love of fairy women. Such
themes appear in a highly rationalized form in the lays (lais) of the late 12th-century Marie de
France, although she mentions Arthur and his queen only in one, the lay of Lanval.
Chrétien de Troyes
It was Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–85) who in five romances (Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou
Le Chevalier de la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du
Graal) fashioned a new type of narrative based on the matter of Britain. The internal debate and
self-analysis of the roman d’antiquité is here used with artistry. At times, what seems to matter
most to the poet is not the plot but the thematic pattern he imposes upon it and the significance
he succeeds in conveying, either in individual scenes in which the action is interpreted by the
characters in long monologues or through the work as a whole. In addition to this, he attempts
what he himself calls a conjointure—that is, the organization into a coherent whole of a series of
episodes. The adventures begin and end at the court of King Arthur; but the marvels that bring
together material from a number of sources are not always meant to be believed, especially as
they are somehow dovetailed into the normal incidents of life at a feudal court. Whatever
Chrétien’s intentions may have been, he inaugurated what may be called a Latin tradition of
romance—clear, hard, bright, adorned with rhetoric, in which neither the courtly sentiment nor
the enchantments are seriously meant. Chrétien had only one faithful follower, the trouvère
Raoul de Houdenc (fl. 1200–30), author of Méraugis de Portlesguez. He shared Chrétien’s taste
for love casuistry, rhetorical adornment, and fantastic adventure. For both of these authors,
elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from
one romance to another. Even in Chrétien’s Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (“Perceval, or the
Romance of the Grail”)—the work in which the Grail appears for the first time in European
literature—the stress is on narrative incident interspersed with predictions of future happenings
and retrospective explanations. Arthurian romances of the period 1170–1250 are romans
d’aventure, exploiting the strange, the supernatural, and the magical in the Arthurian tradition. A
number (for example, La Mule sans frein [“The Mule Without a Bridle”], c. 1200, and L’Âtre
périlleux [“The Perilous Churchyard”], c. 1250) have as their hero Arthur’s nephew Gawain,
who in the earlier Arthurian verse romances is a type of the ideal knight.
Love as a major theme
The treatment of love varies greatly from one romance to another. It is helpful to
distinguish sharply here between two kinds of theme: the one, whether borrowed from classical
antiquity (such as the story of Hero and Leander or that of Pyramus and Thisbe, taken from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses) or of much more recent origin, ending tragically; the other ending with
marriage, reconciliation, or the reunion of separated lovers. It is noteworthy that “romance,” as
applied to a love affair in real life, has in modern English the connotation of a happy ending.
This is also true of most Old French love romances in verse: the tragic ending is rare and is
usually linked with the theme of the lover who, finding his or her partner dead, joins the beloved
in death, either by suicide or from grief.
The Tristan story
The greatest tragic love story found as a romance theme is that of Tristan and Iseult. It was
given the form in which it has become known to succeeding generations in about 1150–60 by an
otherwise unknown Old French poet whose work, although lost, can be reconstructed in its
essentials from surviving early versions based upon it. Probably closest in spirit to the original is
the fragmentary version of c. 1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred
that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a
passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes
belong. The story ended with Iseult’s death in the embrace of her dying lover and with the
symbol of two trees growing from the graves of the lovers and intertwining their branches so
closely that they could never be separated. Most later versions, including a courtly version by an
Anglo-Norman poet known only as Thomas, attempt to resolve the tragic conflict in favour of
the sovereignty of passion and to turn the magic potion into a mere symbol. Gottfried von
Strassburg’s German version, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210), based on Thomas, is one of the great
courtly romances of the Middle Ages; but, although love is set up as the supreme value and as
the object of the lovers’ worship, the mellifluous and limpid verse translates the story into the
idyllic mode. Another tragic and somewhat unreal story is that told in the anonymous
Chastelaine de Vergi (c. 1250), one of the gems of medieval poetry, in which the heroine dies of
grief because, under pressure, her lover has revealed their secret and adulterous love to the duke
of Burgundy. The latter tells it to his own wife, who allows the heroine to think that her lover has
betrayed her. The theme of the dead lover’s heart served up by the jealous husband to the lady—
tragic, sophisticated, and far-fetched—appears in the anonymous Chastelain de Couci (c. 1280)
and again in Daz Herzmaere by the late 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. The
theme of the outwitting of the jealous husband, common in the fabliaux (short verse tales
containing realistic, even coarse detail and written to amuse), is frequently found in 13th-century
romance and in lighter lyric verse. It occurs both in the Chastelain de Couci and in the Provençal
romance Flamenca (c. 1234), in which it is treated comically.
The theme of separation and reunion
But the theme that has left the deepest impress on romance is that of a happy resolution,
after many trials and manifold dangers, of lovers’ difficulties. As has been seen, this theme was
derived from late classical Greek romance by way of Apollonius of Tyre and its numerous
translations and variants. A somewhat similar theme, used for pious edification, is that of the
legendary St. Eustace, reputedly a high officer under the Roman emperor Trajan, who lost his
position, property, and family only to regain them after many tribulations, trials, and dangers.
The St. Eustace theme appears in Guillaume d’Angleterre, a pious tale rather than a romance
proper, which some have attributed to Chrétien de Troyes.
A variant on the theme of separation and reunion is found in the romance of Floire et
Blancheflor (c. 1170), in which Floire, son of the Saracen “king” of Spain, is parted by his
parents from Blancheflor, daughter of a Christian slave of noble birth, who is sold to foreign
slave dealers. He traces her to a tower where maidens destined for the sultan’s harem are kept,
and the two are reunited when he gains access to her there by hiding in a basket of flowers. This
romance was translated into Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Norse, and Middle English (as
Floris and Blancheflur, c. 1250) and in the early 13th century was imitated in Aucassin et
Nicolette, which is a chantefable (a story told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited
prose) thought by some critics to share a common source with Floire et Blancheflor. In it, the
roles and nationality, or religion, of the main characters are reversed; Nicolette, a Saracen slave
converted to Christianity, who proves to be daughter of the king of Carthage, disguises herself as
a minstrel in order to return to Aucassin, son of Count Gavin of Beaucaire. Jean Renart’s
L’Escoufle (c. 1200–02) uses the theme of lovers who, accidentally separated while fleeing
together from the emperor’s court, are eventually reunited; and the highly esteemed and
influential Guillaume de Palerne (c. 1200) combines the theme of escaping lovers with that of
the “grateful animal” (here a werewolf, which later resumes human shape as a king’s son)
assisting the lovers in their successful flight. The popular Partenopeus de Blois (c. 1180), of
which 10 French manuscripts and many translated versions are known, resembles the Cupid and
Psyche story told in the Roman writer Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2nd century ad), although there is
probably no direct connection. In the early 13th-century Galeran de Bretagne, Galeran loves
Fresne, a foundling brought up in a convent; the correspondence between the two is discovered,
and Fresne is sent away but appears in Galeran’s land just in time to prevent him from marrying
her twin sister, Fleurie.
The theme of a knight who undertakes adventures to prove to his lady that he is worthy of
her love is represented by a variety of romances including the Ipomedon (1174–90) of Hue de
Rotelande and the anonymous mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman Gui de Warewic. Finally, there
are many examples of the “persecuted heroine” theme; in one variety a person having knowledge
of some “corporal sign”—a birthmark or mole—on a lady wagers with her husband that he will
seduce her and offer proof that he has done so (this is sometimes called the “Imogen theme”
from its use in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline). The deceit is finally exposed and the lady’s honour
vindicated. In the early 13th-century Guillaume de Dôle by Jean Renart, the birthmark is a rose;
and in the Roman de Violette, written after 1225 by Gerbert de Montreuil, it is a violet. Philippe
de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine (c. 1270), Jean Maillart’s La Contesse d’Anjou (1361), and
Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale (after 1387) all treat the theme of the tribulations of a wife falsely
accused and banished but, after many adventures, reunited with her husband.
