Part II: Anglo-Norman Literary Period, part of the Middle Ages Literary Period
15
Marie de France
The Twelve Lais
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2019 All Rights Reserved.
This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose.
Link to website providing OER materials: Kline, A.S., (Poetry) “The Lais of Marie de France”
Introduction
Little is known of the life of Marie de France (flourished c1160-1215), a contemporary of Chrétien de Troyes, other than that she was probably born in France, but lived mostly in England. She dedicated the Lais to a king, most probably Henry II of England. She wrote in French (in the Francien dialect) but was also fluent in Latin and probably Breton, suggesting she was of at least the minor nobility. As well as writing the Lais, she translated Aesop’s fables into French, and wrote other religious works.
The first French female poet of note, she conjures up a courtly ethos further developed in Chrétien’s romances, though penning her Breton tales, the twelve Lais, from oral tradition. She may indeed have been born in Brittany. Traces of Anglo-Norman in her language suggesting an origin in Normandy or thereabouts may be due to her living in England, or to the transcribers of her works.
Her name, Marie, and origin in France are simply derived from comments in her own work, and though there have been numerous suggestions as to her identity, she remains otherwise anonymous. The Lais became popular in medieval times, and a number of manuscripts survive, the most complete being in the British Library (MS Harley 978). Attesting to the influence of Ovid’s ‘The Art of Love’ and ‘The Cures for Love’ on the medieval period, as witnessed by the work of Chrétien de Troyes, here are Marie’s trials, tribulations and consequences of love.
Prologue
THOSE whom God has granted sense,
And taught to speak with eloquence,
Should not be dumb, or hide away,
But willingly their skills display.
When all listen to aught that’s fine
Then it flourishes, and doth shine.
And when tis praised by the hour
Then it blossoms in full flower.
In times past twas customary,
For such is Priscian’s testimony,
To speak, in the books they made,
Obscurely, of all they conveyed,
Knowing that others would follow
Who, that they the work might know,
Would gloss the text, every letter,
And, with sense, their source better.
This the philosophers all knew,
Among themselves, and held it true
That when more time had passed,
Old wisdom would be surpassed,
And more then would be revealed,
Of that which had been concealed.
Whoever would guard from vice
Should study, such is my advice,
And some great work should undertake,
And thus all vice indeed forsake,
And be delivered from great ill.
So I began to muse until
I thought some tale to relate,
From Latin to Romanz translate;
Yet its value might be denied,
Since many another had tried.
I thought then of the lais I’d heard,
For, I doubted not, every word
They’d forged so as to remember
All the truth of some adventure
They had heard of, and so began
A tale set forth for everyman.
Of such I’d heard many a one.
Wishing to lose and forget none,
Thus I’ve set them down in rhyme,
Working late, full many a time.
In honour of you, our noble king,
True and courteous in everything,
To whom all pleasures do incline,
In whom do root all virtues fine,
I undertook to make these lais,
In rhyming verse, all in your praise;
And thus present, as I have sought,
To you, the content of my thought.
If to receive them is your pleasure
I shall have joy in ample measure,
And in that favour delight forever.
Think it not presumption, ever,
If such tales, to you, I present.
Hark now to their commencement!