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This prose translation of twenty-four lays from the French Middle Ages brings to the general reader as well as to scholars a complement to the twelve well-known lays by Marie de France, the possible creator of the genre. These lays are mostly anonymous, and the majority, but by no means all of them, are, like Marie's lays, centred on a love interest of some kind in a variety of settings. But, unlike Marie's lays, their treatment varies from the courtly and sophisticated to the comic or the tragic, thereby illustrating the range of poems covered by the term 'lai' in twelfth- and thirteenth-century France. A significant number of these lays, based in the courtly world, contain supernatural elements or magic objects that are fundamental to the story as it is related, and sometimes the heroes leave the real world to dwell forever in an otherworldly domain. Other lays have a more mundane feel to them and seem closer to the fabliau in tone. In one instance, the lay of Haveloc, the tale owes more to legendary history than to pure fantasy. Overall, this collection stakes a claim to make an important contribution to the Medieval French lay within the wider European tradition of the short story and the literature of love.
E-Book Content
EX ETER STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
History, Society and the Arts SER IES EDITOR S
Simon Barton, Oliver Creighton, Anthony Musson and Yolanda Plumley
Twenty-Four Lays from the French Middle Ages Translated by
Glyn S. Burgess and
Leslie C. Brook
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2016 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2016 Glyn S. Burgess and Leslie C. Brook The right of Glyn S. Burgess and Leslie C. Brook to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available print ISBN 978-1-78138-336-0 cased print ISBN 978-1-78138-337-7 paperback epdf ISBN 978-1-78138-368-1 Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Contents
General Introduction
1
Manuscripts
10 Magic and Mystery
1. Melion 2. Tyolet 3. Graelent 4. Guingamor 5. Desiré 6. Doon 7. Espine 8. Tydorel 9. Trot
14 25 37 50 61 74 81 90 99 Fun and Games
10. Mantel 11. Cor 12. Aristote 13. Lecheor 14. Ignaure 15. Oiselet 16. Espervier 17. Nabaret
106 121 130 141 145 159 167 173
vi
Twenty-Four Lays from the French Middle Ages Passion and Tears
18. Piramus and Thisbe 19. Narcisus and Dané
178 192
Romance and Realism 20. The Chastelaine de Vergi 21. The Lai de l’Ombre 22. Amours 23. Conseil
210 227 244 255
The Lay as History 24. Haveloc
270
Bibliography Index of Proper Names
287 298
General Introduction
The genre of the narrative lay (or lai) in Old French is predominantly associated with an author traditionally known as Marie de France. Her twelve surviving lays, known collectively as the Lais, have often been regarded as the model of the genre, and Marie herself as its creator. Often known as the Breton lay – because of its perceived links with Brittany in terms of origin and the presence, in some cases but not all, of Breton locations and personages – the narrative lay is to the modern short story what the genre of the romance is to the modern novel. It would be wrong, however, to think that the lay as a genre is restricted to Mar