Medieval French Literature - Lyric Poetry

Lyric Poetry

Medieval French lyric poetry was indebted to the poetic and cultural traditions in Southern France and Provence—including Toulouse, Poitiers, and the Aquitaine region—where "langue d'oc" was spoken (Occitan language); in their turn, the Provençal poets were greatly influenced by poetic traditions from the Hispano-Arab world. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word "trobar" (to find, to invent). Lyric poets in Old French are called "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, courtly love. The "fin amors" tradition appears at roughly the same time in Europe as the Cult of the Virgin Mary, and the two have obvious similarities. In the "fin amors" tradition, the poet pledges his service to his lady ("dame", usually a married woman), in much the same way a knight or vassal pledges service to his lord. In the poems of the troubadours, the lady is frequently cold, distant, or upset with the poet and demands that he prove his service to her; the poet, for his part, is generally tormented by his passion, and his poems are often desperate pleas to his lady so that she might grant him some favor. In some troubadour poetry, the "favor" sought for is decidedly sexual, but in others there is a rarefied notion of love as spiritual and moral force. For more information on the troubadour tradition, see Provençal literature.

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

• Conon de Béthune (c.1150-c.1219)
• Le Châtelain de Couci (d.1203)
• Blondel de Nesle (second half of the 12th century)
• Richard the Lionheart (Richard Coeur de Lion) (1157–1199)
• Gace Brulé (active 1180-1213)
• Colin Muset (around 1230)
• Theobald IV of Champagne (1201–1253)
• Adam de la Halle (c.1240-c.1288)
• Guiot de Provins (d. after 1208)

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 Roman de Fauvel in 1310 and 1314, a satire on abuses in the medieval church filled with medieval motets, lais, 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 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 Machaux, see Renaissance music).

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

• Rutebeuf (d.1285)
• Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377)
• Eustache Deschamps (1346-c.1406)
• Alain Chartier (c. 1392 - c. 1430)
• Christine de Pisan (1364–1430)
• Charles, duc d'Orléans (1394–1465)
• François Villon (1431-1465?)

The last three poets on this list deserve further comment.

Charles, duc d'Orléans was a noble and head of one of the most powerful families in France during the Hundred Years' War. Captured in the Battle of Agincourt, he was a prisoner of the English from 1415–1441 and his ballades often speak of loss and isolation. His son became King Louis XII of France.

Christine de Pisan was one of the most prolific writers of her age; her "Cité des Dames" is considered a kind of "feminist manifesto".

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:

• Ballade
• Rondeau (poetry) (or Rondel)
• Ditié
• Dits moraux
• Lai
• Virelai
• Pastourelle
• Complainte
• Chanson
  • Chanson de toile ("weaving song")
  • Chanson de croisade
  • Chanson courtoise
  • Rotrouenge
• Chant royal
• Aube ("dawn poem")
• Jeu parti