Medieval French literature

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A page from the Chanson de Roland, the most famous epic of French literature

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Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, Medieval literature written in Oïl languages (particularly Old French and early Middle French) during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century.

The material and cultural conditions in France and associated territories around the year 1100 unleashed what the scholar Charles Homer Haskins termed the "Renaissance of the 12th century" and, for over the next hundred years, writers, "jongleurs", "clercs" and poets produced a profusion of remarkable creative works in all genres. Although the dynastic struggles of the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death pandemic of the fourteenth century in many ways curtailed this creative production, the fifteenth century laid the groundwork for the French Renaissance.

Language

Main articles:
Provençal literature, and Anglo-Norman literature

Up to roughly 1340, the

Franco-Provençal
were spoken in the East.

The various dialects of Old French developed into what are recognised as

Saintongeais and Walloon
.

From 1340 to the beginning of the seventeenth century, a generalized French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing Oïl languages. This is referred to as Middle French ("moyen français").

The vast majority of literary production in Old French is in

romance
("roman") was usually written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets.

Early texts

The earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the eleventh century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints' lives. The Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the ninth century, is generally accepted as the first such text. It is a short poem that recounts the martyrdom of a young girl.

The best known of the early Old French saints' lives is the

Saint Alexis, a translation/rewriting of a Latin legend. Saint Alexis fled from his family's home in Rome on his wedding night and dwelled as a hermit in Syria until a mystical voice began telling people of his holiness. In order to avoid the earthly honor that came with such fame, he left Syria and was driven back to Rome, where he lived as a beggar at his family's house, unrecognized by all until his death. He was only identified later when the pope read his name in a letter held in the dead saint's hand. Although the saint left his family in order to devote his life more fully to God, the poem makes clear that his father, mother, and wife are saved by the Alexis' intercession and join him in Paradise. The earliest and best surviving text is in St. Albans Psalter, written probably at St Albans, England, in the second or third decade of the twelfth century. This provenance is indicative of the fact that many of the most important early texts were composed in Anglo-Norman
dialect.

The Chanson de Geste

Main article: Chanson de geste

At the beginning of the 13th century,

Chanson de Saisnes
, divided medieval French narrative literature into three subject areas:

The first of these is the subject area of the

epic poems typically composed in ten-syllable assonanced (occasionally rhymed) laisses. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in around three hundred manuscripts.[1] The chief theme of the earliest French epics was the court of Charlemagne, Charles Martel and Charles the Bald and their wars against the Moors and Saracens
, or disputes between kings and their rebellious vassals.

The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is

The Song of Roland (earliest version composed c. 1098), seen by some as the national epic of France (comparable with Beowulf in England, the Song of the Nibelungs in Germany and the Lay of el Cid in Spain). It is perhaps no coincidence that the Song of Roland was first written down at a date very close to that of Pope Urban's call (1095) for the First Crusade
; its plot may be seen as a glorification of the crusader ethos.

The earliest chansons de geste are (more or less) anonymous. They are popular literature (aimed at a warrior class, some say, though the evidence for this is inconclusive). They use an assortment of stock characters: the valiant hero, the brave traitor, the shifty or cowardly traitor, the Saracen, the giant, and so forth. But they also reveal much of the fears and conflicts that were part of the audience's experience. Kings are vain, foolish, old or wily. Insults that threaten honour or cause shame are seen to provoke bloody conflict, which may arise simply from competitiveness among knights or noble families. For discussion of the much debated origins of this epic genre, see Chanson de geste.

Approximately one hundred chansons survive, in

feudal chief, or the defence of Christianity
. This is a list of the cycles with a few of the chansons that belong to each:

New chansons tended to be produced and incorporated into the existing literature in two ways:

  • A separate period or adventure in the life of an established hero was told (for example, his childhood).
  • The adventures of one of the ancestors or descendants of an established hero was told.

This method of epic expansion, with its obsession with blood line, was to be an important compositional technique throughout the Middle Ages. It also underscores the symbolic weight placed within this culture on family honor, paternal fidelity and on the idea of proving one's filial worth.

As the genre matured, it began to borrow elements from the French roman and the role of love became increasingly important. In some chansons de geste an element of self-

Pèlerinage de Charlemagne
.

The Roman

Miniature from a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 195), folio 1r, portrait of Guillaume de Lorris.

romance or "roman". The term "roman" signifies, roughly, "vernacular" (i.e. not Latin), but it is used to designate narrative poetry ("romance") usually written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets
and telling stories of chivalry and love.

The most famous "romans" are those of the "Matter of Britain" dealing with

Breton (Celtic) legends. The most important of these writers was Chrétien de Troyes
(twelfth century).

The "Matter of Rome" concerns romances that take place in the ancient world, such as romances dealing with Alexander the Great, Troy, the Aeneid and Oedipus. Yet Bodel's category leaves little place for another important group of romances: those adventurous romances which are often set in Byzantium.

Sometimes linked with the "roman" are the

Celtic
themes and origins.

Around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220.[2] From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose (many of the earlier verse romances were adapted into prose versions), although new verse romances continued to be written to the end of the 14th century.,[3] and it was chiefly in their prose form that many romances were read from the 14th to the 16th century.

The success of the early Arthurian romances also led, from around 1200 on, to a restructuring and compiling of the material into vast prose cycles.[4]

Important "Matter of Rome" romances of the 12th century

Important Byzantine and adventure romances of the 12th century

Important romances of Britain of the 12th and 13th centuries

Important romances of the 13th and 14th centuries:

The most important romance of the 13th century is the

Romance of the Rose
which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story: in a dream a lover comes upon a garden and meets various allegorical figures. The second part of the work (written by Jean de Meun) expands on the initial material with scientific and mythological discussions. The novel would have an enormous impact on French literature up to the Renaissance.

Related to the previous romance is the medieval narrative poem called "dit" (literally "spoken", i.e. a poem not meant to be sung) which follows the poetic form of the "roman" (octosyllabic rhymed couplets). These first-person narrative works (which sometimes include inserted lyric poems) often use

René I of Naples
's allegorical romance Cœur d'amour épris (celebrated for its illustrations) is also a work in the same tradition.

Lyric poetry

Medieval French lyric poetry was indebted to the poetic and cultural traditions in Southern France and

trouvères
", using the Old French version of the word (for more information on the "trouvères", their poetic forms, extant works and their social status, see the article of that name).

The occitan troubadours were amazingly creative in the development of verse forms and poetic genres, but their greatest impact on medieval literature was perhaps in their elaboration of complex code of love and service called "fin amors" or, more generally,

Provençal literature
.

Selected trouvère poets of the 12th and 13th centuries:

By the late 13th century, the poetic tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets, both in content and in the use of certain fixed forms. The new poetic (as well as musical: some of the earliest medieval music has lyrics composed in Old French by the earliest composers known by name) tendencies are apparent in the

rondeaux and other new secular forms of poetry and music (mostly anonymous, but with several pieces by Philippe de Vitry who would coin the expression Ars nova [new art, or new technique] to distinguish the new musical practice from the music of the immediately preceding age). The best-known poet and composer of ars nova secular music and chansons was Guillaume de Machaut. (For more on music, see medieval music; for more on music in the period after Machaut, see Renaissance music
).

Selected French poets from the late 13th to the 15th centuries:

The last three poets on this list deserve further comment.

Louis XII of France
.

gender transitioning to enable her to become a male writer to sustain her family after the death of her father.[5][6] She is often acknowledged to be the first female professional writer.[7] Over the course of her lifetime, she produced 41 pieces of prose or poetry. She ran her own manuscript workshop and employed women as well as men to be scribes and illuminators.[8]

François Villon was a student and vagabond whose two poetic "testaments" or "wills" are celebrated for their portrayal of the urban and university environment of Paris and their scabrous wit, satire and verbal puns. The image of Villon as vagabond poet seems to have gained almost mythic status in the 16th century, and this figure would be championed by poetic rebels of the 19th century and 20th centuries (see Poète maudit).

Poetic forms used by medieval French poets include:

Theater

Discussions about the origins of non-religious theater (théâtre profane)—both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and tragedy to the 9th century seems unlikely.

Most historians place the origin of medieval drama in the church's liturgical dialogues and "tropes". At first simply dramatizations of the ritual, particularly in those rituals connected with Christmas and Easter (see Mystery play), plays were eventually transferred from the monastery church to the chapter house or refectory hall and finally to the open air, and the vernacular was substituted for Latin. In the 12th century one finds the earliest extant passages in French appearing as refrains inserted into liturgical dramas in Latin, such as a Saint Nicholas (patron saint of the student clercs) play and a Saint Stephen play.

Dramatic plays in French from the 12th and 13th centuries:

The origins of farce and comic theater remain equally controversial; some literary historians believe in a non-liturgical origin (among "jongleurs" or in pagan and folk festivals), others see the influence of liturgical drama (some of the dramas listed above include farcical sequences) and monastic readings of Plautus and Latin comic theater.

Non-dramatic plays from the 12th and 13th centuries:

Select list of plays from the 14th and 15th centuries:

In the 15th century, the public representation of plays was organized and controlled by a number of professional and semi-professional guilds:

  • Clercs de la
    Morality plays
  • Farces and Sotties
  • Conards (Rouen)
  • Mystery plays

Genres of theater practiced in the Middle Ages in France:

  • Farce – a realistic, humorous, and even coarse satire of human failings
  • Sottie – generally a conversation among idiots ("sots"), full of puns
    and quidproquos
  • Pastourelle – a play with a pastoral setting
  • Chantefable
    – a mixed verse and prose form only found in "Aucassin et Nicolette"
  • Mystery play – a depiction of the Christian mysteries or Saint's lives
  • Morality play
  • Miracle play
  • Passion play
  • Sermon Joyeux – a burlesque sermon

Fable and satire

A large body of

Reynard the Fox. Marie de France was also active in this genre, producing the Ysopet (Little Aesop
) series of fables in verse.

Related to the fable was the more bawdy "

Chaucer
and for the Renaissance short story ("conte" or "nouvelle").

Seven Deadly Sins
appear in the personification of a horse.

The prose satire Les XV [Quinze] joies de mariage (The Fifteen Joys of Marriage, first published 1480–90, written perhaps in the early 15th century, and attributed variously to

bishop of Avignon
, and many others) is a riotous critique of wives, but it also provides important insight into the economic and social life of a married household in the 15th century.

A page from Primat's Roman des rois (c.1274)

History and chronicles

Prose compositions in the Middle Ages—other than the prose versions of romances and "chansons de geste"—include a number of histories and

Fourth crusade of 1204 and the capture of Constantinople), Jean de Joinville (on Saint Louis IX of France), Jean Froissart (on the wars of the 14th century) and Philippe de Commines and Enguerrand de Monstrelet
(on the troubles of the 15th century).

A program for a vernacular history of France organized by the reigns of its kings was first conceived in the 13th century at the

Abbey of Saint-Denis. The result was the Grandes Chroniques de France, the earliest version of which was Primat of Saint-Denis's Roman des rois, presented to King Philip III
in about 1274.

William of Santo Stefano wrote a history of the Knights Hospitaller in Old French.

Other

Philippe de Mézières wrote "Songe du Vieil Pelerin" (1389), an elaborate allegorical voyage in which he described the customs of Europe and the near East.

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-2-253-05341-5
  2. ^ (in French) Antoine Adam, Georges Lerminier, and Édouard Morot-Sir, eds. Littérature française. "Tome 1: Des origines à la fin du XVIIIe siècle," Paris: Larousse, 1967, p. 16.
  3. ^ (in French) Antoine Adam, Georges Lerminier, and Édouard Morot-Sir, eds. Littérature française. "Tome 1: Des origines à la fin du XVIIIe siècle," Paris: Larousse, 1967, p. 36-37.
  4. ^ (in French) Antoine Adam, Georges Lerminier, and Édouard Morot-Sir, eds. Littérature française. "Tome 1: Des origines à la fin du XVIIIe siècle," Paris: Larousse, 1967, p. 36-37.
  5. S2CID 234533118
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-958217-4
    .
  7. JSTOR 463703
    .
  8. ISSN 2115-6360
    .

References

General:

Chanson de geste:

  • (in English) Crosland, Jesse. The Old French Epic. New York: Haskell House, 1951.

Roman:

  • (in English) Kelly, Douglas. Medieval French Romance. Twayne's World Author Series. New York: Twayne, 1993.

Poetry:

  • (in English) Akehurst, F.R.P. and Judith M. Davis, eds. A Handbook of the Troubadours. Berkeley: U of Calif., 1995.
  • (in English and French) Goldin, Frederick. Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères: An Anthology and History. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1983.
  • (in French) Poésie lyrique au Moyen Age. Collection: Classiques Larousse. Paris: Larousse, 1975.
  • (in English) Wilhelm, James J., (editor), Lyrics of the Middle Ages : an anthology, New York : Garland Pub., 1990.
    ISBN 0-8240-7049-6

External links
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