Anglo-Norman literature
Encyclopedia
Anglo-Norman literature is literature
composed in the Anglo-Norman language
developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy
and England
were united in the Anglo-Norman
realm.
came over to England
with William the Conqueror. Following the Norman conquest, the Norman language became the language of England's nobility. During the whole of the 12th century Anglo-Norman (the variety of Norman used in England) shared with Latin
the distinction of being the literary language
of England, and it was in use at the court until the 14th century. It was not until the reign of Henry VII that English
became the native tongue of the kings of England. The language had undergone certain changes which distinguished it from the Old Norman
spoken in Normandy, as can be seen from graphical characteristics, from which certain rules of pronunciation are to be inferred. An Anglo-Norman variety of French continued to exist into the early 15th century, though it was in decline at least from the 1360s, when it was deemed insufficiently well-known to be used for pleading in court. Great prestige continued to be enjoyed by the French language, however; in the late 14th century, the author of the Manière de language calls French:
which means:
Somewhat ironically, the text contains many features that distinguish insular from continental French.
The most flourishing period of Anglo-Norman literature was from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the first quarter of the 13th. The end of this period is generally said to coincide with the loss of the French provinces to Philip Augustus, but literary and political history do not correspond quite so precisely, and the end of the first period would be more accurately denoted by the appearance of the history of William the Marshal in 1225 (published for the Société de l'histoire de France
, by Paul Meyer
, 3 vols., 1891–1901). It owes its brilliancy largely to the protection accorded by Henry II of England
to the men of letters of his day.
Wace
and Benoît de Sainte-More compiled their histories at his bidding, and it was in his reign that Marie de France
composed her poems. An event with which he was closely connected, viz. the murder of Thomas Becket
, gave rise to a whole series of writings, some of which are purely Anglo-Norman. In his time appeared the works of Béroul
and Thomas of Britain
respectively, as well as some of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Norman romans d'aventure. It is important to keep this fact in mind when studying the different works which Anglo-Norman literature has left us. We will examine these works briefly, grouping them into narrative, didactic, hagiographic, lyric, satiric and dramatic literature.
came over to England at an early date. It is believed that the Chanson de Roland was sung at the battle of Hastings
, and some Anglo-Norman manuscripts of chansons de geste
have survived to this day. The Pélérinage de Charlemagne
(Eduard Koschwitz
, Altfranzösische Bibliothek, 1883) was, for instance, only preserved in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of the British Museum
(now lost), although the author was certainly a Parisian. The oldest manuscript of the Chanson de Roland that we possess is also a manuscript
written in England, and amongst the others of less importance we may mention La Chançun de Willame
, the MS. of which has (June 1903) been published in facsimile at Chiswick (cf. Paul Meyer, Romania, xxxii. 597–618).
Although the diffusion of epic poetry in England did not actually inspire any new chansons de geste, it developed the taste for this class of literature, and the epic style in which the tales of the Romance of Horn
, of Bovon de Hampton
, of Guy of Warwick (still unpublished), of Waldef (still unpublished), and of Fulk Fitz Warine are treated, is certainly partly due to this circumstance. Although the last of these works has come down to us only in a prose version, it contains unmistakable signs of a previous poetic form, and what we possess is really only a rendering into prose similar to the transformations undergone by many of the chansons de geste.
The interinfluence of French and English literature can be studied in the Breton
romances and the romans d'aventure even better than in the epic poetry of the period. The Lay of Orpheus is known to us only through an English imitation, Sir Orfeo
; the Lai du cor was composed by Robert Biket, an Anglo-Norman poet of the 12th century (Wulff, Lund, 1888). The Lais of Marie de France
were written in England, and the greater number of the romances composing the matière de Bretagne
seem to have passed from England to France through the medium of Anglo-Norman.
The legends of Merlin
and Arthur
, collected in the Historia Regum Britanniae
by Geoffrey of Monmouth
(died c. 1154), passed into French literature, bearing the character which the bishop of St Asaph
had stamped upon them. Chrétien de Troyes
's Perceval (c. 1175) is doubtless based on an Anglo-Norman poem. Robert de Boron (c. 1215) took the subject of his Merlin (published by G. Paris and J. Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols., Société des anciens textes français
) from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Finally, the most celebrated love-legend of the Middle Ages, and one of the most beautiful inventions of world-literature, the story of Tristan and Iseult
, tempted two authors, Béroul
and Thomas
, the first of whom is probably, and the second certainly, Anglo-Norman (see Arthurian legend; Holy Grail
; Tristan
). One Folie Tristan was composed in England in the last years of the 12th century. (For all these questions see Soc. des Anc. Textes, Ernest Muret's ed. 1903; Joseph Bédier
's ed. 1902–1905).
Less fascinating than the story of Tristan and Iseult, but nevertheless of considerable interest, are the two romans d'aventure of Hugh of Rutland, Ipomedon (published by Eugen Kölbing
and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889) and Protesilaus
(still unpublished) written about 1185. The first relates the adventures of a knight who married the young duchess of Calabria, niece of King Meleager of Sicily, but was loved by Medea, the king's wife.
The second poem is the sequel to Ipomedon, and deals with the wars and subsequent reconciliation between Ipomedon's sons, Daunus, the elder, lord of Apulia, and Protesilaus, the younger, lord of Calabria. Protesilaus defeats Daunus, who had expelled him from Calabria. He saves his brother's life, is reinvested with the dukedom of Calabria, and, after the death of Daunus, succeeds to Apulia. He subsequently marries Medea, King Meleager's widow, who had helped him to seize Apulia, having transferred her affection for Ipomedon to his younger son (cf. Ward, Cat. of Rom., i. 728).
To these two romances by an Anglo-Norman author, Amadas et Idoine, of which we only possess a continental version, is to be added. Gaston Paris
has proved indeed that the original was composed in England in the 12th century (An English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall in Honour of his Seventy-fifth Birthday, Oxford, 1901, 386–394).
The Anglo-Norman poem on the Life of Richard Coeur de Lion is lost, and an English version only has been preserved. About 1250 Eustace of Kent introduced into England the roman d'Alexandre in his Roman de toute chevalerie, many passages of which have been imitated in one of the oldest English poems on Alexander, namely, King Alisaunder (P. Meyer, Alexandre le grand, Paris, 1886, ii. 273, and Weber, Metrical Romances, Edinburgh).
written in England, viz.
As to fables, one of the most popular collections in the Middle Ages was that written by Marie de France, which she claimed to have translated from King Alfred. In the Contes moralisés, written by Nicole Bozon shortly before 1320 (Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889), a few fables bear a strong resemblance to those of Marie de France.
The religious tales deal mostly with the Mary Legends, and have been handed down to us in three collections:
Another set of religious and moralizing tales is to be found in Chardri's Set dormans and Josaphat, c. 1216 (Koch, Altfr. Bibl., 1880; G. Paris, Poèmes et légendes du moyen âge).
, who wrote his Estorie des Angles (between 1147 and 1151) for Dame Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert (The Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle, Hardy and Martin, i. ii., London, 1888). This history comprised a first part (now lost), which was merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae
, preceded by a history of the Trojan War, and a second part which carries us as far as the death of William Rufus. For this second part he has consulted historical documents, but he stops at the year 1087, just when he has reached the period about which he might have been able to give us some first-hand information. Similarly, Wace in his Roman de Rou
(ed. Anthony Holden, Paris, 1970–1973), written 1160–1174, stops at the battle of Tinchebray
in 1107 just before the period for which he would have been so useful. His Brut
or Geste des Bretons (Le Roux de Lincy, 1836–1838, 2 vols.), written in 1155, is merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The History of the Dukes of Normandy by Benoît de Sainte-More is based on the work of Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II. about 1170, and takes us as far as the year 1135 (ed. by Francisque Michel, 1836–1844, Collection de documents inédits, 3 vols.). The 43,000 lines which it contains are of but little interest to the historian; they are too evidently the work of a romancier courtois, who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has described in his romance of Troy. Other works, however, give us more trustworthy information, for example, the anonymous poem on Henry II.'s Conquest of Ireland in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1837), which, together with the Expugnatio hibernica of Giraud de Barri, constitutes our chief authority on this subject. The Conquest of Ireland was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen
, under the title of The Song of Dermot and the Earl (Oxford, Clarendon Press). Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174, wrote an account of the wars between Henry II., his sons, William the Lion of Scotland and Louis VII., in 1173 and 1174 (Chronicle of the reigns of Stephen ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel, London, 1886, pp. 202–307). Not one of these histories, however, is to be compared in value with The History of William the Marshal, Count of Striguil and Pembroke
, regent of England from 1216–1219, which was found and subsequently edited by Paul Meyer (Société de l'histoire de France, 3 vols., 1891–1901). This masterpiece of historiography was composed in 1225 or 1226 by a professional poet of talent at the request of William, son of the marshal. It was compiled from the notes of the marshal's squire, John d'Early (d. 1230 or 1231), who shared all the vicissitudes of his master's life and was one of the executors of his will. This work is of great value for the history of the period 1186–1219, as the information furnished by John d'Early is either personal or obtained at first hand. In the part which deals with the period before 1186, it is true, there are various mistakes, due to the author's ignorance of contemporary history, but these slight blemishes are amply atoned for by the literary value of the work. The style is concise, the anecdotes are well told, the descriptions short and picturesque; the whole constitutes one of the most living pictures of medieval society. Very pale by the side of this work appear the Chronique of Peter of Langtoft, written between 1311 and 1320, and mainly of interest for the period 1294–1307 (ed. by T. Wright, London, 1866–1868); the Chronique of Nicholas Trevet (1258?–1328?), dedicated to Princess Mary, daughter of Edward I. (Duffus Hardy, Descr. Catal. III., 349-350); the Scala Chronica
compiled by Thomas Gray of Heaton
(† c. 1369), which carries us to the year 1362-1363 (ed. by J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1836); the Black Prince, a poem by the poet Chandos Herald
, composed about 1386, and relating the life of the Black Prince from 1346-1376 (re-edited by Francisque Michel, London and Paris, 1883); and, lastly, the different versions of the Brutes, the form and historical importance of which have been indicated by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Société des anciens textes français
, 1878, pp. 104–145), and by F. W. D. Brie (Geschichte und Quellen der mittelenglischen Prosachronik, The Brute of England or The Chronicles of England, Marburg, 1905).
Finally we may mention, as ancient history, the translation of Eutropius and Dares, by Geoffrey of Waterford (13th century), who gave also the Secret des Secrets, a translation from a work wrongly attributed to Aristotle
, which belongs to the next division (Rom. xxiii. 314).
In the 14th century we find:
We have also a few handbooks on the teaching of French. Gautier de Biblesworth wrote such a treatise (T. Wright, A Volume of Vocabularies; P. Meyer, Rec. d'anc. textes, p. 360 and Romania xxxii, 22); (J. Stürzinger, Altfr. Bibl. 1884, and R.C. Johnston, ANTS. Plain Texts 1987); , written in 1396 (P. Meyer, Rev. crit. d'hist. et de litt. vii(2). 378); , c. 1399 (Stengel, Z. für n.f. Spr. u. Litt. i. 11).
The important , by John Gower
, contains about 30,000 lines written in very good French at the end of the 14th century (Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower, i., Oxford, 1899).
s written in Anglo-Norman the most important ones are the following, the list of which is given in chronological order:
In this category we may add the life of Hugh of Lincoln, 13th century (Hist. Lit. xxiii. 436; Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1888, p. v; Wolter, Bibl. Anglo-Norm., ii. 115). Other lives of saints were recognized to be Anglo-Norman by Paul Meyer when examining the MSS. of the Welbeck library (Rom. xxxii. 637 and Hist. Lit. xxxiii. 338-378).
furnishes us with a proof of the extent to which these songs penetrated into England. We read of:
One of the finest productions of Anglo-Norman lyric poetry written in the end of the 13th century, is the Plainte d'amour (Vising, Göteborg, 1905; Romania xiii. 507, xv. 292 and xxix. 4), and we may mention, merely as literary curiosities, various works of a lyrical character written in two languages, Latin and French, or English and French, or even in three languages, Latin, English and French. In Early English Lyrics (Oxford, 1907) we have a poem in which a lover sends to his mistress a love-greeting composed in three languages, and his learned friend replies in the same style (De amico ad amicam, Responcio, viii and ix).
and the Anglo-Norman version of the Riote du Monde (Z. f. rom. Phil. viii. 275-289) in England is proof enough that the French spirit of satire was keenly appreciated. The clergy and the fair sex presented the most attractive target for the shots of the satirists. However, an Englishman raised his voice in favour of the ladies in a poem entitled La Bonté des dames (Meyer, Rom. xv. 315-339), and Nicole Bozon, after having represented "Pride" as a feminine being whom he supposes to be the daughter of Lucifer, and after having fiercely attacked the women of his day in the Char d'Orgueil (Rom. xiii. 516), also composed a Bounté des femmes (P. Meyer, op. cit. 33) in which he covers them with praise, commending their courtesy, their humility, their openness and the care with which they bring up their children. A few pieces of political satire show us French and English exchanging amenities on their mutual shortcomings. The Roman des Français, by André de Coutances, was written on the continent, and cannot be quoted as Anglo-Norman although it was composed before 1204 (cf. Gaston Paris: Trois versions rimées de l'évangile de Nicodème, Soc. Anc. Textes, 1885), it is a very spirited reply to French authors who had attacked the English.
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
composed in the Anglo-Norman language
Anglo-Norman language
Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....
developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy
Duchy of Normandy
The Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Norwegian, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 9th century...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
were united in the Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
realm.
Introduction
The Norman languageNorman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
came over to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with William the Conqueror. Following the Norman conquest, the Norman language became the language of England's nobility. During the whole of the 12th century Anglo-Norman (the variety of Norman used in England) shared with Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
the distinction of being the literary language
Literary language
A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
of England, and it was in use at the court until the 14th century. It was not until the reign of Henry VII that English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
became the native tongue of the kings of England. The language had undergone certain changes which distinguished it from the Old Norman
Old Norman
Old Norman, also called Old Northern French or Old Norman French, was one of many langues d'oïl dialects. It was spoken throughout the region of what is now called Normandy and spread into England, Southern Italy, Sicily, and the Levant. It is the ancestor of modern Norman, including the insular...
spoken in Normandy, as can be seen from graphical characteristics, from which certain rules of pronunciation are to be inferred. An Anglo-Norman variety of French continued to exist into the early 15th century, though it was in decline at least from the 1360s, when it was deemed insufficiently well-known to be used for pleading in court. Great prestige continued to be enjoyed by the French language, however; in the late 14th century, the author of the Manière de language calls French:
- ...le plus bel et le plus gracious language et plus noble parler, apres latin d'escole, qui soit au monde et de touz genz mieulx prisée et amée que nul autre (quar Dieux le fist si douce et amiable principalement à l'oneur et loenge de luy mesmes. Et pour ce il peut comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grand doulceur et biaultée d'icel).
which means:
- ...the most beautiful and gracious language, and the most noble one in the world to speak, after the latin of our schooldays. All genz [could mean nobles, could mean everyone—trans.] love it more than any other (for God made it so sweet and lovable mainly for his own honor and praise. And due to this, it can be compared to the angels' speech in heaven, due to its great sweetness and beauty).
Somewhat ironically, the text contains many features that distinguish insular from continental French.
The most flourishing period of Anglo-Norman literature was from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the first quarter of the 13th. The end of this period is generally said to coincide with the loss of the French provinces to Philip Augustus, but literary and political history do not correspond quite so precisely, and the end of the first period would be more accurately denoted by the appearance of the history of William the Marshal in 1225 (published for the Société de l'histoire de France
Société de l'histoire de France
The Société de l'histoire de France was established on 21 December 1833 at the instigation of the French minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot, in order to contribute to the renewal of historical scholarship fuelled by a widespread interest in national history, typical of the Romantic...
, by Paul Meyer
Paul Meyer
Marie-Paul-Hyacinthe Meyer , was a French philologist.-Biography:Meyer was born in Paris and educated at the Lycée Louis le Grand and the École des Chartes, specializing in the Romance languages....
, 3 vols., 1891–1901). It owes its brilliancy largely to the protection accorded by Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
to the men of letters of his day.
- "He could speak French and Latin well, and is said to have known something of every tongue between the Bay of Biscay and the Jordan. He was probably the most highly educated sovereign of his day, and amid all his busy active life he never lost his interest in literature and intellectual discussion; his hands were never empty, they always had either a bow or a book".
Wace
Wace
Wace was a Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy , ending his career as Canon of Bayeux.-Life:...
and Benoît de Sainte-More compiled their histories at his bidding, and it was in his reign that Marie de France
Marie de France
Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...
composed her poems. An event with which he was closely connected, viz. the murder of Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, gave rise to a whole series of writings, some of which are purely Anglo-Norman. In his time appeared the works of Béroul
Béroul
Béroul was a Norman poet of the 12th century. He wrote Tristan, a Norman language version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult of which a certain number of fragments have been preserved; it is the earliest representation of the so-called "vulgar" version of the legend...
and Thomas of Britain
Thomas of Britain
Thomas of Britain was a french poet of the 12th century. He is known for his Old French poem Tristan, a version of the Tristan and Iseult legend that exists only in eight fragments, amounting to around 3,300 lines of verse, mostly from the latter part of the story...
respectively, as well as some of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Norman romans d'aventure. It is important to keep this fact in mind when studying the different works which Anglo-Norman literature has left us. We will examine these works briefly, grouping them into narrative, didactic, hagiographic, lyric, satiric and dramatic literature.
Epic and romance
The French epicEpic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
came over to England at an early date. It is believed that the Chanson de Roland was sung at the battle of Hastings
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
, and some Anglo-Norman manuscripts of chansons de geste
Chanson de geste
The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères and...
have survived to this day. The Pélérinage de Charlemagne
Pèlerinage de Charlemagne
Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne or Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople is an Old French chanson de geste dealing with a fictional expedition by Charlemagne and his knights. The oldest known written version was probably composed around 1140...
(Eduard Koschwitz
Eduard Koschwitz
Eduard Koschwitz was a Romance philologist, born at Breslau. In 1877 he became docent at Strassburg and afterward was made professor at Greifswald and Marburg. His specialty was French and Occitan...
, Altfranzösische Bibliothek, 1883) was, for instance, only preserved in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
(now lost), although the author was certainly a Parisian. The oldest manuscript of the Chanson de Roland that we possess is also a manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
written in England, and amongst the others of less importance we may mention La Chançun de Willame
Chanson de Guillaume
The Chanson de Guillaume or Chançun de Willame is a chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century The Chanson de Guillaume or Chançun de Willame (English: "Song of William") is a chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century The Chanson de Guillaume or Chançun de...
, the MS. of which has (June 1903) been published in facsimile at Chiswick (cf. Paul Meyer, Romania, xxxii. 597–618).
Although the diffusion of epic poetry in England did not actually inspire any new chansons de geste, it developed the taste for this class of literature, and the epic style in which the tales of the Romance of Horn
Romance of Horn
Romance of Horn is an Anglo-Norman literature romans d'aventure tale written around 1170 by an author apparently named "Thomas"....
, of Bovon de Hampton
Bevis of Hampton
Bevis of Hampton is a legendary English hero and the subject of Anglo-Norman, French, English, Venetian and other medieval metrical romances that bear his name...
, of Guy of Warwick (still unpublished), of Waldef (still unpublished), and of Fulk Fitz Warine are treated, is certainly partly due to this circumstance. Although the last of these works has come down to us only in a prose version, it contains unmistakable signs of a previous poetic form, and what we possess is really only a rendering into prose similar to the transformations undergone by many of the chansons de geste.
The interinfluence of French and English literature can be studied in the Breton
Breton literature
Breton literature may refer to literature in the Breton language or the broader literary tradition of Brittany in the three other main languages of the area, namely, Latin, Gallo and French – all of which have had strong mutual linguistic and cultural influences.-Old and Middle Breton...
romances and the romans d'aventure even better than in the epic poetry of the period. The Lay of Orpheus is known to us only through an English imitation, Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem, retelling the story of Orpheus as a king rescuing his wife from the fairy king.-History and Manuscripts:...
; the Lai du cor was composed by Robert Biket, an Anglo-Norman poet of the 12th century (Wulff, Lund, 1888). The Lais of Marie de France
The Lais of Marie de France
The Lais of Marie de France are a series of twelve short narrative Breton lais by the poet Marie de France. They are written in the Anglo-Norman and were probably composed in the late 12th century. The short, narrative poems generally focus on glorifying the concept of courtly love through the...
were written in England, and the greater number of the romances composing the matière de Bretagne
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and its legendary kings, particularly King Arthur...
seem to have passed from England to France through the medium of Anglo-Norman.
The legends of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
and Arthur
Artus
The term Artus may refer to:* Artus Clothing, an online t-shirt company based in California* List of Star Wars planets #Artus, a planet in the Star Wars universe...
, collected in the Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
by Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
(died c. 1154), passed into French literature, bearing the character which the bishop of St Asaph
Bishop of St Asaph
The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph.The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of St Asaph in the town of...
had stamped upon them. Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
's Perceval (c. 1175) is doubtless based on an Anglo-Norman poem. Robert de Boron (c. 1215) took the subject of his Merlin (published by G. Paris and J. Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols., Société des anciens textes français
Société des anciens textes français
Société des anciens textes français is a learned society founded in Paris in 1875 with the purpose of publishing all kinds of medieval documents written either in langue d'oïl or langue d'oc . Its founding members are Henri Bordier, marquis J. de Laborde, A...
) from Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Finally, the most celebrated love-legend of the Middle Ages, and one of the most beautiful inventions of world-literature, the story of Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
, tempted two authors, Béroul
Béroul
Béroul was a Norman poet of the 12th century. He wrote Tristan, a Norman language version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult of which a certain number of fragments have been preserved; it is the earliest representation of the so-called "vulgar" version of the legend...
and Thomas
Thomas of Britain
Thomas of Britain was a french poet of the 12th century. He is known for his Old French poem Tristan, a version of the Tristan and Iseult legend that exists only in eight fragments, amounting to around 3,300 lines of verse, mostly from the latter part of the story...
, the first of whom is probably, and the second certainly, Anglo-Norman (see Arthurian legend; Holy Grail
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
; Tristan
Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
). One Folie Tristan was composed in England in the last years of the 12th century. (For all these questions see Soc. des Anc. Textes, Ernest Muret's ed. 1903; Joseph Bédier
Joseph Bédier
Joseph Bédier was a French writer and scholar and historian of medieval France.-Biography:Bédier was born in Paris, France to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. He was a professor of medieval French literature at the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland ...
's ed. 1902–1905).
Less fascinating than the story of Tristan and Iseult, but nevertheless of considerable interest, are the two romans d'aventure of Hugh of Rutland, Ipomedon (published by Eugen Kölbing
Eugen Kölbing
Eugen Kölbing was a German philologist, a specialist in the study of Nordic, English, and French language and literature and comparative linguistics and literature.-Academic Career:...
and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889) and Protesilaus
Protesilaus
In Greek mythology, Protesilaus , was a hero in the Iliad who was venerated at cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphicles, a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the eponymous Phylacos, he was the leader of the Phylaceans...
(still unpublished) written about 1185. The first relates the adventures of a knight who married the young duchess of Calabria, niece of King Meleager of Sicily, but was loved by Medea, the king's wife.
The second poem is the sequel to Ipomedon, and deals with the wars and subsequent reconciliation between Ipomedon's sons, Daunus, the elder, lord of Apulia, and Protesilaus, the younger, lord of Calabria. Protesilaus defeats Daunus, who had expelled him from Calabria. He saves his brother's life, is reinvested with the dukedom of Calabria, and, after the death of Daunus, succeeds to Apulia. He subsequently marries Medea, King Meleager's widow, who had helped him to seize Apulia, having transferred her affection for Ipomedon to his younger son (cf. Ward, Cat. of Rom., i. 728).
To these two romances by an Anglo-Norman author, Amadas et Idoine, of which we only possess a continental version, is to be added. Gaston Paris
Gaston Paris
Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris , known as Gaston Paris, was a French writer and scholar.He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, 1902 and 1903.-Biography:Paris was born at Avenay...
has proved indeed that the original was composed in England in the 12th century (An English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall in Honour of his Seventy-fifth Birthday, Oxford, 1901, 386–394).
The Anglo-Norman poem on the Life of Richard Coeur de Lion is lost, and an English version only has been preserved. About 1250 Eustace of Kent introduced into England the roman d'Alexandre in his Roman de toute chevalerie, many passages of which have been imitated in one of the oldest English poems on Alexander, namely, King Alisaunder (P. Meyer, Alexandre le grand, Paris, 1886, ii. 273, and Weber, Metrical Romances, Edinburgh).
Fableaux, fables and religious tales
In spite of the incontestable popularity enjoyed by this class of literature, we have only some half-dozen fableauxFabliau
A fabliau is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between ca. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by an excessiveness of sexual and scatological obscenity. Several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decamerone and by Geoffrey Chaucer...
written in England, viz.
- Le chevalier à la corbeille,
- Le chevalier qui faisait parler les muets,
- Le chevalier, sa dame et un clerc,
- Les trois dames,
- La gageure,
- Le prêtre d'Alison,
- La bourgeoise d'Orléans (Bédier, Les Fabliaux, 1895).
As to fables, one of the most popular collections in the Middle Ages was that written by Marie de France, which she claimed to have translated from King Alfred. In the Contes moralisés, written by Nicole Bozon shortly before 1320 (Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889), a few fables bear a strong resemblance to those of Marie de France.
The religious tales deal mostly with the Mary Legends, and have been handed down to us in three collections:
- The Adgar's collection. Most of these were translated from William of MalmesburyWilliam of MalmesburyWilliam of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
(d. 1143?) by Adgar in the 12th century ("Adgar's Marien-Legenden," Altfr. Biblioth. ix.; J. A. Herbert, Rom. xxxii. 394). - The collection of Everard of Gateley, a monk of St. Edmund at Bury, who wrote c. 1250 three Mary Legends (Rom. xxix. 27).
- An anonymous collection of sixty Mary Legends composed c. 1250 (Brit. Museum Old Roy. 20 B, xiv.), some of which have been published in Hermann Suchier's Bibliotheca Normannica; in the Altf. Bibl. See also Mussafia, "Studien zu den mittelalterlichen Marien-legenden" in Sitzungsh. der Wien. Akademie (t. cxiii., cxv., cxix., cxxiii., cxxix.).
Another set of religious and moralizing tales is to be found in Chardri's Set dormans and Josaphat, c. 1216 (Koch, Altfr. Bibl., 1880; G. Paris, Poèmes et légendes du moyen âge).
History
Of far greater importance, however, are the works which constitute Anglo-Norman historiography. The first Anglo-Norman historiographer is Geoffrey GaimarGeoffrey Gaimar
Geoffrey Gaimar , was an Anglo-Norman chronicler. Gaimar's most significant contribution to medieval literature and history is as a translator from Old English to Anglo-Norman. His L'Estoire des Engles translates extensive portions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as well as using Latin and French...
, who wrote his Estorie des Angles (between 1147 and 1151) for Dame Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert (The Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle, Hardy and Martin, i. ii., London, 1888). This history comprised a first part (now lost), which was merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
, preceded by a history of the Trojan War, and a second part which carries us as far as the death of William Rufus. For this second part he has consulted historical documents, but he stops at the year 1087, just when he has reached the period about which he might have been able to give us some first-hand information. Similarly, Wace in his Roman de Rou
Roman de Rou
Roman de Rou is a verse chronicle by Wace in Norman covering the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the time of Rollo of Normandy to the battle of Tinchebray in 1106...
(ed. Anthony Holden, Paris, 1970–1973), written 1160–1174, stops at the battle of Tinchebray
Battle of Tinchebray
The Battle of Tinchebray was fought 28 September 1106, in the town of Tinchebray , Normandy, between an invading force led by Henry I of England, and his older brother Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy...
in 1107 just before the period for which he would have been so useful. His Brut
Roman de Brut
Roman de Brut or Brut is a verse literary history of Britain by the poet Wace. Written in the Norman language, it consists of 14,866 lines....
or Geste des Bretons (Le Roux de Lincy, 1836–1838, 2 vols.), written in 1155, is merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
- "Wace," says Gaston Paris, speaking of the Roman de Rou, "traduit en les abrégeant des historiens latins que nous possédons; mais çà et là il ajoute soit des contes populaires, par exemple sur Richard 1er, sur Robert 1er, soit des particularités qu'il savait par tradition (sur ce même Robert le magnifique, sur l'expédition de Guillaume, &c.) et qui donnent à son oeuvre un réel intérêt historique. Sa langue est excellente; son style clair, serré, simple, d'ordinaire assez monotone, vous plaît par sa saveur archaïque et quelquefois par une certaine grâce et une certaine malice."
The History of the Dukes of Normandy by Benoît de Sainte-More is based on the work of Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II. about 1170, and takes us as far as the year 1135 (ed. by Francisque Michel, 1836–1844, Collection de documents inédits, 3 vols.). The 43,000 lines which it contains are of but little interest to the historian; they are too evidently the work of a romancier courtois, who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has described in his romance of Troy. Other works, however, give us more trustworthy information, for example, the anonymous poem on Henry II.'s Conquest of Ireland in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1837), which, together with the Expugnatio hibernica of Giraud de Barri, constitutes our chief authority on this subject. The Conquest of Ireland was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen
Goddard Henry Orpen
Goddard Henry Orpen was an Irish historian. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin.Orpen was the son of John Herbert Orpen....
, under the title of The Song of Dermot and the Earl (Oxford, Clarendon Press). Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174, wrote an account of the wars between Henry II., his sons, William the Lion of Scotland and Louis VII., in 1173 and 1174 (Chronicle of the reigns of Stephen ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel, London, 1886, pp. 202–307). Not one of these histories, however, is to be compared in value with The History of William the Marshal, Count of Striguil and Pembroke
L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal
L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal is the verse biography of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke , written shortly after his death at the request of his son. The biography is composed of 19,214 lines, in rhyming octosyllabic couplets, and was written in the Anglo-Norman language. It is the major...
, regent of England from 1216–1219, which was found and subsequently edited by Paul Meyer (Société de l'histoire de France, 3 vols., 1891–1901). This masterpiece of historiography was composed in 1225 or 1226 by a professional poet of talent at the request of William, son of the marshal. It was compiled from the notes of the marshal's squire, John d'Early (d. 1230 or 1231), who shared all the vicissitudes of his master's life and was one of the executors of his will. This work is of great value for the history of the period 1186–1219, as the information furnished by John d'Early is either personal or obtained at first hand. In the part which deals with the period before 1186, it is true, there are various mistakes, due to the author's ignorance of contemporary history, but these slight blemishes are amply atoned for by the literary value of the work. The style is concise, the anecdotes are well told, the descriptions short and picturesque; the whole constitutes one of the most living pictures of medieval society. Very pale by the side of this work appear the Chronique of Peter of Langtoft, written between 1311 and 1320, and mainly of interest for the period 1294–1307 (ed. by T. Wright, London, 1866–1868); the Chronique of Nicholas Trevet (1258?–1328?), dedicated to Princess Mary, daughter of Edward I. (Duffus Hardy, Descr. Catal. III., 349-350); the Scala Chronica
Scalacronica
Scalacronica is a Scottish chronicle written in Anglo-Norman by the knight Sir Thomas Gray of Heaton in Northumberland, while he was imprisoned by the Scots at Edinburgh after an ambush in 1355...
compiled by Thomas Gray of Heaton
Thomas Grey (chronicler)
Sir Thomas Grey of Heton , Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, was an English chronicler.-Family:He was a son of the Sir Thomas de Grey of Heaton , who was taken prisoner by the Scots at Bannockburn, and his wife Agnes Sir Thomas Grey of Heton (near Norham), Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland,...
(† c. 1369), which carries us to the year 1362-1363 (ed. by J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1836); the Black Prince, a poem by the poet Chandos Herald
Chandos Herald
Chandos Herald is the name used to refer to the author of a poem about the life of The Black Prince. He is so-called because he was the herald of the English warlord John Chandos, the Black Prince's closest friend....
, composed about 1386, and relating the life of the Black Prince from 1346-1376 (re-edited by Francisque Michel, London and Paris, 1883); and, lastly, the different versions of the Brutes, the form and historical importance of which have been indicated by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Société des anciens textes français
Société des anciens textes français
Société des anciens textes français is a learned society founded in Paris in 1875 with the purpose of publishing all kinds of medieval documents written either in langue d'oïl or langue d'oc . Its founding members are Henri Bordier, marquis J. de Laborde, A...
, 1878, pp. 104–145), and by F. W. D. Brie (Geschichte und Quellen der mittelenglischen Prosachronik, The Brute of England or The Chronicles of England, Marburg, 1905).
Finally we may mention, as ancient history, the translation of Eutropius and Dares, by Geoffrey of Waterford (13th century), who gave also the Secret des Secrets, a translation from a work wrongly attributed to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, which belongs to the next division (Rom. xxiii. 314).
Didactic literature
Didactic literature is the most considerable, if not the most interesting, branch of Anglo-Norman literature: it comprises a large number of works written chiefly with the object of giving both religious and profane instruction to Anglo-Norman lords and ladies. The following list gives the most important productions arranged in chronological order:- Philippe de Thaun, , c. 1119 (edited by E. Mall, Strassburg, 1873), poem on the calendar;
- , c. 1130 (ed. by E. Walberg, Paris, 1900; cf. G. Paris, Rom. xxxi. 175);
- (redaction between 1150 and 1170, ed. by J. E. Matzke, Paris, 1899);
- Oxford PsalterPsalterA psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
, c. 1150 (Fr. Michel, , Oxford, 1860);
- Cambridge Psalter, c. 1160 (Fr. Michel, Paris, 1877);
- London Psalter, same as Oxford Psalter (cf. Beyer, Zt. f. rom. Phil. xi. 513-534; xii. 1-56);
- (Distichs of CatoDistichs of CatoThe Distichs of Cato , is a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality by an unknown author named Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century AD. The Cato was the most popular medieval schoolbook for teaching Latin, prized not only as a Latin textbook, but as a moral compass...
), translated by Everard de Kirkham and Elie de Winchester (Stengel, Ausg. u. Abhandlungen);
- , a summary of BoethiusAnicius Manlius Severinus BoethiusAnicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...
' (Consolation of PhilosophyConsolation of PhilosophyConsolation of Philosophy is a philosophical work by Boethius, written around the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical.-...
), by Simon de Fresne (Hist. lit. xxviii. 408);
- , translated into French in the 12th century, and imitated in England soon after (P. Schlösser, , Bonn, 1886; Romania, xvii. 124);
- Donnei des Amanz,, the conversation of two lovers, overheard and carefully noted by the poet, of a purely didactic character, in which are included three interesting pieces, the first being an episode of the story of Tristram, the second a fable, the third a tale, , which is the basis of the celebrated Lai de l'oiseletLai de l'OiseletThe Lai de l'Oiselet is an Old French poem, preserved in five manuscripts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, now held by the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris....
(Rom. xxv. 497);
- (1160);
- , by Robert de Ho (=HooHoo PeninsulaThe Hoo Peninsula is a peninsula in England separating the estuaries of the rivers Thames and Medway. It is dominated by a line of sand and clay hills, surrounded by an extensive area of marshland composed of alluvial silt. The name Hoo is the Old English word for spur of land.-History:The Romans...
, Kent, on the left bank of the MedwayMedwayMedway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
) [edited by Mary Vance Young, Paris; Picard, 101; cf. G. Paris, Rom. xxxii. 141];
- (Pannier, );
- Frére Angier de Ste. Frideswide, Dialogues, 29 November 1212 (Rom. xii. 145-208, and xxix.; M. K. Pope, Étude sur la langue de Frère Angier, Paris, 1903);
- , ed. by Foerster, 1876; , by Chardri, c. 1216 (Koch, Altfr Bibliothek. i., and Mussafia, Z. f. r. P. iii. 591);
- , c. 1225 (Rom. xv. 356; xxix. 72);
- (Rom. xvi. 248–262);
- Poème sur l'Ancien Testament '(Not. et Extr. xxxiv. 1, 210; Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889, 73–74);
- and , by Robert de Gretham (Rom. vii. 345; xv. 296);
- Lumière as Lais, by Pierre de Peckham, c. 1250 (Rom. xv. 287); an Anglo-Norman redaction of Image du monde, c. 1250 (Rom. xxi. 481);
- two Anglo-Norman versions of (Justice, Truth, Peace, Mercy), 13th century (ed. by Fr. Michel, Psautier d'Oxford, pp. 364–368, Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes, 1886, 57, Romania, xv. 352);
- another Comput by Raüf de Lenham, 1256 (P. Meyer, Archives des missions, 2nd series iv. 154 and 160-164; Rom. xv. 285);
- Le chastel d'amors, by Robert GrossetesteRobert GrossetesteRobert Grosseteste or Grossetete was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk. A.C...
or Greathead, bishop of LincolnBishop of LincolnThe Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
(† 1253) [ed. by Cooke, Carmina Anglo-Normannica, 1852, Caxton Society];
- Poème sur l'amour de Dieu et sur la haine du péché, 13th century, second part (Rom. xxix. 5);
- (Rom. xxix. 54);
- Ditie d' Urbain, attributed without any foundation to Henry I. (P. Meyer, Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes, 1880, p. 73 and xxxii, 68);
- (Rom. xxix. 21);
- , by Henri d'Arci (Rom. xxix. 78; Not. et. Extr. 35, i. 137).
- Wilham de Waddington produced at the end of the 13th century his , which was adapted in England by Robert of Brunne in his Handlying Sinne (1303) [Hist. lit. xxviii. 179–207; Rom. xxix. 5, 47-53]; see F. J. Furnivall, Robert of Brunne's Handlying Synne (Roxb. Club, 1862);
In the 14th century we find:
- Nicole Bozon's (see above);
- (Rom. xiii. 508);
- Sermons in verse (P. Meyer, op. cit. xlv.);
- (op. cit. xlvi.).
We have also a few handbooks on the teaching of French. Gautier de Biblesworth wrote such a treatise (T. Wright, A Volume of Vocabularies; P. Meyer, Rec. d'anc. textes, p. 360 and Romania xxxii, 22); (J. Stürzinger, Altfr. Bibl. 1884, and R.C. Johnston, ANTS. Plain Texts 1987); , written in 1396 (P. Meyer, Rev. crit. d'hist. et de litt. vii(2). 378); , c. 1399 (Stengel, Z. für n.f. Spr. u. Litt. i. 11).
The important , by John Gower
John Gower
John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
, contains about 30,000 lines written in very good French at the end of the 14th century (Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower, i., Oxford, 1899).
Hagiography
Among the numerous lives of saintSaint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s written in Anglo-Norman the most important ones are the following, the list of which is given in chronological order:
- Voyage de Saint Brandan (or Brandain), written in 1121, by an ecclesiastic for Queen Aelis of Louvain (Rom. St. i. 553-588; Z. f. r. P. ii. 438-459; Rom. xviii. 203. C. Wahlund, Die altfr. Prosaübersetz. von Brendan's Meerfahrt, Upsala, 1901);
- life of St. Catherine by Clemence of Barking (Rom. xiii. 400, Jarnik, 1894);
- life of St Giles, c. 1170, by Guillaume de Berneville (Soc. Anc. Textes fr., 1881; Rom. xi. and xxiii. 94);
- life of St. Nicholas, life of Our Lady, by Wace (Delius, 1850; Stengel, Cod. Digby, 66); Uhlemann, Gram. Krit. Studien zu Wace's Conception und Nicolas, 1878;
- life of St. George by Simon de Fresne (Rom. x. 319; J. E. Matzke, Public. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer. xvii. 1902; Rom. xxxiv. 148);
- Expurgatoire de Ste. Patrice, by Marie de France (Jenkins, 1894; Eckleben, Aelteste Schilderung vom Fegefeuer d.H. Patricius, 1851; Ph. de Felice, 1906);
- La vie de St. Edmund le Rei, by Denis PyramusDenis PyramusDenis Pyramus was a Benedictine monk of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey and an Anglo-Norman poet who was active in the second part of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century....
, end of 12th century (Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, edited by T. Arnold, ii. 1892; Rom. xxii. 170); - Henri d'Arci's life of St. Thais, poem on the Antichrist, Visio S. Pauli (P. Meyer, Not. et Extr. xxxv. 137–158);
- life of St. Gregory the Great by Frère Angier, 30 April 1214 (Rom. viii. 509–544; ix. 176; xviii. 201);
- The Vie de seint Clement, early 13C (D. Burrows, Vie de seint Clement, 3 vols., Anglo-Norman Text Society: London, 2007-9/10); a version of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitiones and Epistula Clementis ad Iacobum translated by Rufinus of Aquileia, and the Passio sanctorum apostolorum Petri et PauliPassio sanctorum Petri et PauliThe pseudepigraphical Passio sanctorum Petri et Pauli is a late version of the martyrdoms of the two apostles, which claims to have been written by a certain Marcellus, thus the anonymous author, of whom nothing further is known, is referred to as the "pseudo-Marcellus"...
attributed to Pseudo-Marcellus - life of St. Modwenna, between 1225 and 1250 (Suchier, Die dem Matthäus Paris zugeschriebene Vie de St. Auban, 1873, pp. 54–58);
- Fragments of a life of St Thomas Becket, c. 1230 (P. Meyer, Soc. Anc. Text. fr., 1885); and another life of the same by Benoit of St. Alban, 13th century (Michel, Chron. des ducs de Normandie; Hist. Lit. xxiii. 383);
- a life of Edward the ConfessorEdward the ConfessorEdward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, written before 1245 (H. R. Luard, Lives of Edward the Confessor, 1858; Hist. Lit. xxvii. 1), by an anonymous monk of Westminster; life of St. Auban, c. 1250 (Suchier, op. cit.; Uhlemann, "Über die vie de St. Auban in Bezug auf Quelle," &c. Rom. St. iv. 543-626; ed. by Atkinson, 1876). - The Vision of Tnudgal, an Anglo-Norman fragment, is preserved in MS. 312, Trinity College, Dublin; the MS. is of the 14th century; the author seems to belong to the 13th (La vision de Tondale, ed. by Friedel and Kuno MeyerKuno MeyerKuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...
, 1906).
In this category we may add the life of Hugh of Lincoln, 13th century (Hist. Lit. xxiii. 436; Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1888, p. v; Wolter, Bibl. Anglo-Norm., ii. 115). Other lives of saints were recognized to be Anglo-Norman by Paul Meyer when examining the MSS. of the Welbeck library (Rom. xxxii. 637 and Hist. Lit. xxxiii. 338-378).
Lyric poetry
The only extant songs of any importance are the seventy-one Ballads of Gower (Stengel, Gower's Minnesang, 1886). The remaining songs are mostly of a religious character. Most of them have been discovered and published by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889; Not. et Extr. xxxiv; Rom. xiii. 518, t. xiv. 370; xv. p. 254, &c.). Although so few have come down to us such songs must have been numerous at one time, owing to the constant intercourse between English, French and Provençals of all classes. An interesting passage in Piers PlowmanPiers Plowman
Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...
furnishes us with a proof of the extent to which these songs penetrated into England. We read of:
- "... dykers and deluers that doth here dedes ille,
- And dryuen forth the longe day with 'Deu, vous saue,
-
-
- Dame Emme!'" (Prologue, 223 f.)
-
-
One of the finest productions of Anglo-Norman lyric poetry written in the end of the 13th century, is the Plainte d'amour (Vising, Göteborg, 1905; Romania xiii. 507, xv. 292 and xxix. 4), and we may mention, merely as literary curiosities, various works of a lyrical character written in two languages, Latin and French, or English and French, or even in three languages, Latin, English and French. In Early English Lyrics (Oxford, 1907) we have a poem in which a lover sends to his mistress a love-greeting composed in three languages, and his learned friend replies in the same style (De amico ad amicam, Responcio, viii and ix).
Satire
The popularity enjoyed by the Roman de RenartReynard
Reynard is the subject of a literary cycle of allegorical French, Dutch, English, and German fables largely concerned with Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure.-Etymology of the name:Theories about the origin of the name Reynard are:...
and the Anglo-Norman version of the Riote du Monde (Z. f. rom. Phil. viii. 275-289) in England is proof enough that the French spirit of satire was keenly appreciated. The clergy and the fair sex presented the most attractive target for the shots of the satirists. However, an Englishman raised his voice in favour of the ladies in a poem entitled La Bonté des dames (Meyer, Rom. xv. 315-339), and Nicole Bozon, after having represented "Pride" as a feminine being whom he supposes to be the daughter of Lucifer, and after having fiercely attacked the women of his day in the Char d'Orgueil (Rom. xiii. 516), also composed a Bounté des femmes (P. Meyer, op. cit. 33) in which he covers them with praise, commending their courtesy, their humility, their openness and the care with which they bring up their children. A few pieces of political satire show us French and English exchanging amenities on their mutual shortcomings. The Roman des Français, by André de Coutances, was written on the continent, and cannot be quoted as Anglo-Norman although it was composed before 1204 (cf. Gaston Paris: Trois versions rimées de l'évangile de Nicodème, Soc. Anc. Textes, 1885), it is a very spirited reply to French authors who had attacked the English.
Drama
This must have had a considerable influence on the development of the sacred drama in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. Adam, which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century (Romania xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman Resurrection belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones.Further reading
- William Cole. First and Otherwise Notable Editions of Medieval French Texts Printed from 1742 to 1874: A Bibliographical Catalogue of My Collection. Sitges: Cole & Contreras, 2005.
See also
- English historians in the Middle AgesEnglish historians in the Middle AgesHistorians of England in the Middle Ages helped to lay the groundwork for modern historical historiography, providing vital accounts of the early history of England, Wales and Normandy, its cultures, and revelations about the historians themselves....
- Medieval French literatureMedieval French literatureMedieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century....
- The Crusade and Death of Richard IThe Crusade and Death of Richard IThe Crusade and Death of Richard I is a mid-13th century Anglo-Norman prose chronicle by an anonymous author. It tells of the journey of King Richard I from England to the Holy Land on the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1191...
- List of Norman language writers
- Anglo-Norman Text SocietyAnglo-Norman Text SocietyThe Anglo-Norman Text Society is a learned society which was founded in 1937 by Professor Mildred K Pope. The founding aim of the society was to promote the study of Anglo-Norman language and Anglo-Norman literature by facilitating the publication of reliable scholarly editions of a broad range of...