Jehan Renart, Le Lai de l'ombre

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Critical Editions of French Texts

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Glyn S. Burgess

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Deirdre Reynolds

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Jane Winston

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Timothy Unwin

Glyn S. Burgess

Series Editors

Introduction

Manuscripts, Editions and Translations

The

Lai de l’Ombre

is found in seven manuscripts, to which Joseph Bédier added the

following

sigla

A. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, f. fr. 837 (ff. 40r, col. a

―

44v, col. b).

Thirteenth century. A photographic facsimile was published by H. Omont in
1932 and reproduced in a smaller format by Slatkine Reprints in 1973 (see
Bibliography).

B. BNF, f. fr. 1593 (ff. 157r, col. a.

―

162v, col. b). Thirteenth century.

C. BNF, f. fr. 12603 (ff. 249v, col. a

―

255r, col. a). Early fourteenth century.

D. BNF, f. fr. 19152 (ff. 85v, col. a

―

89r, col. a). Thirteenth century. A

photographic facsimile of this manuscript was published by E. Faral in 1934
(see Bibliography).

E. BNF, nouv. acq. fr. 1104 (ff. 54v, col. b

―

61v, col. b). Thirteenth century.

This is the base manuscript for the Hindley and Levy edition reproduced
here with some light re-editing. It was also transcribed by Joseph Bédier in

La Tradition manuscrite

(see Bibliography).

F. BNF, f. fr. 14971 (ff. 48v, col. a

―

56v, col. a). Thirteenth century.

G. BNF, f. fr. 1553 (ff. 495v, col. a

―

500r, col. b). Thirteenth century.

The manuscripts each offer different readings in points of detail, and it is not
possible to map out their relationship to each other with sufficient precision to
enable scholars to determine which, if any, was Jehan Renart’s ‘final’ text. What can
be said, however, is that the number of surviving manuscripts of the

Lai de l’Ombre

suggests that the text was quite popular in medieval France.

The text was edited twice in the nineteenth century, by Francisque Michel

and Achille Jubinal; and although both editions are now dated, they do allow us to
witness the development of editing practices as ‘medieval studies’ evolved. These
editions seek an ‘authentic’ text, one which is made up from all extant manuscripts.
The reconstruction of a hybrid text was no longer in fashion when Joseph Bédier
published his edition of 1913. He attempted to conserve as much and correct as little
as possible, a principle generally adopted by scholars today. Subsequent editors
plumped for a single manuscript for whatever reasons, and used the others to
highlight variant readings. So, MS A has been edited four times (Bédier in 1913,
Limentani in 1970, Lecoy in 1979, Carmona in 1986), and MS E three (Orr in 1948,
Hindley and Levy in 1977/1985 and Winters in 1986). Each new edition offers fresh
insights and subtly different readings of a complex, intriguing, and at times
ambiguous, text.

There are surprisingly few translations of this eminently teachable, ‘bite-size’

text: a modern French prose version (Mary 1922); two Spanish prose versions
(Carmona 1986 and Riquier 1987); one Italian prose version (Limentani 1970); two

Le Lai de l’Ombre

English prose versions (Goodrich 1965 and Matarasso 1971); and an English verse
adaptation (Terry 1963, revised 1995).

Author and Date

The author names himself in a short epilogue to the

Lai de l’Ombre

N’i covient mes penser [de] rien

Jehan Renart a lor afere! (vv. 952-53)

Nothing is known of his life, but we can be sure of some of his

oeuvre

There is, for

example, an explicit reference at the beginning of the

Lai de l’Ombre

to Guillaume and

the kite from the romance

L’Escoufle

(vv. 22-23). At the end of the nineteenth century

Paul Meyer compared these two texts with a third romance,

Le Roman de la rose ou

Guillaume de Dole

, and found striking stylistic similarities.

Scholars agreed that the

likelihood was a single author for all three texts, a thesis made more probable in 1913
by Joseph Bédier’s discovery of a signature in both

L’Escoufle

and

Guillaume de Dole

Bédier believed that Jehan Renart had concealed his name in both texts via a simple,
though ingenious, anagram. The linguistic and stylistic evidence is strong enough on
its own, however, to suggest a single author for these three texts. It has also been
suggested

―

not always convincingly, it must be said

―

that Jehan Renart composed a

number of other works which have survived from the twelfth century:

Galeron de

Bretagne

;

the fabliau

Auberee

, and two short comic poems,

Du plait Renart de

Dammartin contre Vairon son roncin

and

De Renart et de la Piaudoue

;

Floriant et Florete

;

and

even the

Châtelaine de Vergi

Scholars agree that Jehan Renart breaks new ground with his narratives:

instead of setting his romances in the world of the

roman d’antiquité

or Arthurian

In fact, in a recent article Rita Lejeune concludes that Je(h)an Renart is not the

name of a real author at all, but the pseudonym of a prince-bishop. See R. Lejeune,
‘Jean Renart, pseudonyme littéraire de l’évêque de Liège, Hugues de Pierrepoint
(1200-1229)’,

Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire

, 77 (1999), 271-97.

L’Escoufle

, ed. by Henri Michelant and Paul Meyer, Société des Anciens Textes

Français, 33 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1894).

Le Lai de l’Ombre

, ed. by Joseph Bédier, Société des Anciens Textes Français, 61

(Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1913).

‘

Galeran

et Jean Renart’,

Romania

, 51 (1925), 76-104.

Rita Lejeune-Dehousse,

L’Oeuvre de Jean Renart: contribution à l’étude du genre romanesque

au Moyen Age

, Bibliothèque de la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Liège, 61

(Liège and Paris, 1935); Charles Müller, ‘Les Moyens statistiques et l’attribution des
textes médiévaux anonymes: à propos d’une recherche sur Jehan Renart’, in

Actes du

XIII

Congrès international de linguistique et philologie romanes

, ed. by Marcel Boudrault and

Frankwalt Möhren, 2 vols (Quebec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1976), II, pp. 633-
41.

Claude Levy, ‘Un nouveau texte de Jean Renart?’,

Romania

, 99 (1978), 405-06.

Edwin E. Okafor, ‘Les Sources et la structure de

La Chastelaine de Vergi

’,

Francofonia

12 (1987), 65-77.

Introduction

Britain, the

Lai de l’Ombre

L’Escoufle

and

Guillaume de Dole

are set in his own

contemporary France and his

dramatis personae

are quite ‘realistic’. It is possible to

pinpoint some dating evidence from Renart’s verse. In

Guillaume de Dole

, for example,

there is a tournament scene which has been identified with one held in Saint-Trond
in 1212. This suggests that the romance may have been composed either in 1212 or
in the early months of 1213.

L’Escoufle

is dedicated to Baudouin IX, Count of

Hainault, who set out for the Fourth Crusade in 1202 and was named Emperor of
Constantinople in 1204. It is not unreasonable to assume that this dedication marks a
date of composition in or slightly prior to 1202. As for the

Lai de l’Ombre

, there is no

clear dating evidence. In line 42 Jehan Renart tells us that he is composing his poem
for an

eslit

, or

electus

. Given that

Guillaume de Dole

was dedicated to Milon de Nanteuil,

who was bishop

electus

of Beauvais from 1217 to 1222, when he was consecrated

bishop by the Pope, there is every reason to suspect that the

Lai de l’Ombre

was

dedicated to the same person, placing its composition between 1217 and 1222.
However, Félix Lecoy and Rita Lejeune argue that the

eslit

mentioned in the

Lai de

l’Ombre

is not Milon de Nanteuil but Hugues de Pierpont, making its date of

composition 1202 to 1204.

Lecoy equally argues for a much later date for the

composition of

L’Escoufle

. Suffice it to say that, as with most medieval texts,

pinpointing a date of composition for the

Lai de l’Ombre

is not an exact science: the

periods between 1217 and 1222, and 1202 and 1204, are both quite possible.

Outline of the Story

A successful knight falls in love with a lady of ideal beauty, who has an intelligence
and skill with words which make her the paragon of courtliness. The knight sets out
to win her love by visiting the lady to pay court to her. After some verbal sparring,
the lady, who is not completely indifferent to the charms of the knight, firmly refuses
his advances. On the point of taking his leave, he slips a ring on to her finger without
her noticing, and then departs. The lady, on discovering his trick, does not wish it to
be assumed that she has granted her love to him: she summons the knight to return
to her. She is determined not to keep the ring and is prepared, should the knight
refuse to take it back, to abandon it by throwing it into a well. Seated on the edge of
the well, she tells the knight that she cannot love him and that he must take back his
ring. The knight, who is deeply in love with the lady, must obey her every wish. He
takes back the ring on condition that he may do with it as he wishes. He declares, on
looking into the well, that he will give the ring to the one whom he loves best after
the lady. He then drops the ring into the well where it is ‘received’ by the lady’s
reflection. Moved by this refined gesture, the lady offers the knight a ring of her own
and grants him her love forever.

Such a brief outline scarcely does justice to the

Lai de l’Ombre

. There is not a

great deal of ‘action’, but the theme of love is examined in a manner which is both
meticulous and extremely appealing. The way in which we witness two strong

See two articles by Rita Lejeune, ‘Le Roman de

Guillaume de Dole

et la principauté de

Liège’,

Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale

, 17 (1974), 1-24; ‘Jean Renart, pseudonyme

littéraire’. See also Jean Renart

, Le Lai de l’Ombre

, ed. by Félix Lecoy, CFMA 104

(Paris: Champion, 1979), pp. xii-xv.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

personalities interact is compelling, as is the knight’s dilemma at the end of the
narrative: how can he obey the lady whilst remaining true to himself? The solution is
both unexpected and ingenious.

Structure

The story can be divided into the following sections (line numbers refer to the
translation):

(i)

Prologue (vv. 1-52)

(ii)

Description of the knight (vv. 53-111)

(iii)

The knight falls in love with the lady (vv. 112-211)

(iv)

The knight and his companions ride to and are welcomed at the lady’s
castle (vv. 212-309)

(v)

The knight and lady meet for the first time, he declares his love and she
rebuffs him (vv. 310-561)

(vi)

The knight slips the ring onto the lady’s finger (vv. 562-79)

(vii)

The knight and his retinue leave the lady’s castle; the lady discovers the
ring and sends for him to return (vv. 580-705)

(viii) The second meeting between the lady and the knight; the knight refuses

to take the ring back (vv. 706-858)

(ix)

The knight throws the ring into the well and explains his gesture. He wins
the lady’s love (vv. 859-951)

(x)

Epilogue (vv. 952-62)

Courtly Love

The ‘courtly love’ relationship is similar to the relationship between a knight and his
feudal lord. The knight ‘serves’ his courtly lady with the same obedience and loyalty
with which he serves his liege lord. The lady’s position is one of complete control of
the love relationship. She is distant and (initially at least) unattainable. This contrast
sharply with the position of the knight, who owes her total obedience. He is inspired
by the lady

―

whether she knows it or not

―

to do great deeds of chivalry. This

eventually makes him worthy of her love. The very notion of love is exalted beyond
all others.

This idealised notion of ‘pure’ love dominated literature from around 1100 to

1300. The stylised behaviour of the knight and the lady has its roots in both the
classical world

―

Ovid viewed love as a sickness with symptoms such as flushing, an

inability to sleep, eat or drink, and sighing

―

and in the more contemporary tradition

of troubadour poetry. The rules of courtly love were set out in Andreas Capellanus’s
late twelfth-century

The Art of Courtly Love

. Although we cannot be sure if this text

was satirical or sincere, it was undeniably extremely popular.

Courtly love was characterised by a number of elements. The relationship

was one taking place between aristocratic lovers; a sophisticated web of etiquette was
spun, including the exchange of love tokens, favours and elaborate words; there was
a code of secrecy; and the relationship would be adulterous. This was an idealised
relationship unable to exist within the context of authentic medieval marriages: in the

Introduction

Middle Ages, marriages amongst the nobility were typically for practical or dynastic
reasons rather than for love. So

fin’ amors

was, almost by definition, adulterous.

Scholars cannot agree to what extent courtly love was a ‘real life’ code of

behaviour, followed by noble men and women. Its literary manifestations are, of
course, greatly exaggerated, but the notion as a whole certainly held much fascination
for a medieval audience.

The Poem

It is commonplace for modern scholars to note that the medieval notion of genre
was very different to our own; indeed, some have argued that there are no medieval
genres at all, at least in the modern sense of the term. A number of thought-
provoking articles, most recently that by Paul Wackers, challenge this received
wisdom.

Although medieval classifications are not always easy to interpret

―

Marie de

France frequently speaks of her

Fables

essemples,

of her

Lais

contes

and

aventures

the

Conte du Graal

is a romance and the

Lai du Lecheor

more of a

fabliau

―

there was

undeniably an attempt to classify.

Michel Zink has suggested that, for certain

categories, precise terminology meant little in the Middle Ages:

Fabula

désigne n’importe quelle fiction,

conte

n’importe quel récit et

le récit de n’importe quoi,

histoire

a une valeur plus générale encore,

nuga

est dépréciatif,

lai

dit

s’appliquent à des formes poétiques et

ne préjugent d’aucun contenu.

But the evidence of references in

fabliaux

, romance and

récits brefs

is that, whilst we

may struggle to find comfortable definitions for the texts they describe, words such
as

conte, lai, essample, fable, fabliau, aventure, dit

and

histoire

really did mean something

specific in a medieval context.

So where does this leave the

Lai de l’Ombre

? The best known

lais

, those by

Marie de France, seem to offer a definition of a lay being a love-related

aventure

Although it has been said that nothing much happens in the

Lai de l’Ombre

, Paula

Clifford argues that Jehan Renart’s text does indeed conform to this definition:

[…] there is indeed an event of some significance: love is pledged
by the giving and receiving of a ring. Renart himself appears to see
his work in these terms, stating that his intention is ‘une aventure
metre en rime’.

Paul Wackers, ‘There are no Genres: Remarks on the classification of literary texts’,

Reinardus

, 13 (2000), 237-48. See also Omer Jodogne,

Le Fabliau

, Typologie des

Sources du Moyen Age Occidental, 13 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1975).

M. Zink, ‘La Littérature médiévale et l’invitation au conte’, in

Réception et identification

du conte depuis le Moyen Age

, ed. by M. Zink and X. Ravier (Toulouse: Service des

Publications UTM, 1987), pp. 1-9 (p. 3).

Paula Clifford,

La Chastelaine de Vergi and Jean Renart: Le Lai de l’Ombre

, Critical

Guides to French Texts, 53 (London: Grant and Cutler, 1986).

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Although the setting is quite different from what we encounter in Marie de France’s

Lais

, the psychological intrigue is not dissimilar. Love is at the centre of the

aventure

there is an obstacle and the obstacle is overcome (or, as is the case in most of Marie’s

Lais

, the obstacle proves insurmountable). The text equally sits at the boundaries of

courtly literature

―

this is, after all, a love story about two people of high status

―

and

of comic literature

―

it is about the length of a

fabliau

, composed in the same metre

and contains elements that are both parodic and satirical. Indeed, modern
commentators have wondered whether Jehan Renart’s intentions in writing the

Lai de

l’Ombre

might not have been to poke fun at the conventions of courtly love.

The text begins with a prologue in which the author sets out his intentions,

justifies his composition and dedicates it to ‘His Grace the Bishop Elect’. It ends
with an epilogue where he briefly comments on the story. These are conventional
structures, both in Old French narrative

per se

, and in the lay and

récit bref

tradition in

particular. The narrative proper consists of two sections: the prelude to the couple’s
initial meeting and their first conversation; and the couple’s parting, the lady’s
monologue and the stunningly effective

dénouement

The action takes place in an unspecified location, at an unspecified time, and

between anonymous characters. This all makes for a story full of narrative
possibilities and ambiguities, and although it is far from uncommon to be dealing
with a medieval text marked by such precision, it must be presumed that a poet as
obviously talented as Jehan Renart has made a conscious decision to cloud his tale in
vagueness. The effect is startling, allowing for his apparently simple, concrete tale to
take on the mantle of a universal story, a metaphor or a social commentary. In
addition to this is the fact that we follow the story from two perspectives: the knight
is not aware of the lady giving in to his charms until the very end, but from quite an
early point in the narrative the reader sees her interest in him grow.

Sarah Kay and Paula Clifford have together outlined three possible

interpretations of the actions of the characters: first, that the knight is, at the
beginning of the story, ‘ignorant of the nature of true love, and gradually achieves
courtliness as the lady’s resistance enables him to distinguish true values’.

The

knight therefore understands the lady’s polite welcome

―

a social obligation and a

standard

topos

in courtly literature

―

as encouragement. Second, the lady is deceived by

the knight who is able to mask his passion behind social convention. Third, both
characters are worldly and experienced. They know that society presents them with a
number of hoops through which they must leap before they can enter into a
romantic relationship. All three interpretations have their merits, and their
weaknesses. The first and second perhaps take some credit away from Jehan Renart
in his (presumably deliberate) depiction of ambiguities. In other words, they leave us
with a rather one-dimensional picture of the characters. The third interpretation has
the potential to do the opposite: if these really are two cynical, worldly-wise
individuals who understand the need to pay lip-service to social convention before
jumping into bed together, then the tale loses much of its charm. After all, if their
coupling is inevitable from the very beginning of the lay, then the verbal jousts and

Clifford,

La Chastelaine de Vergi and Jean Renart: Le Lai de l’Ombre

, p. 65. See S. Kay,

‘Two readings of the

Lai de l’Ombre

’,

Modern Language Review

, 75 (1980), 515-27.

Introduction

ingenious arguments are irrelevant. Of course, the fact that we can have a discussion
on these three interpretations

―

and, without doubt, a number of others

―

only serves

to reinforce the appeal of the

Lai de l’Ombre

The major part of the text consists of dialogues between the knight and the

lady. Both prove themselves to be skilled in this respect, eminently able to look after
themselves. The apparently respectful and infatuated knight, and the polite but
perhaps mocking or scandalised lady, take part in what has been described as a ‘battle
of wits’.

Their exchanges are very skilfully handled by Jehan Renart, leading us to

perhaps the greatest irony of the tale: much of this accomplished and elegant rhetoric
is for nought since it is not the knight’s words which win over the lady, but rather his
gesture with the ring. This gesture may be seen as a courtly masterstroke or a

fabliau-

like ruse, but it is still the turning-point in the contest between the wooer and the
wooed. So, notwithstanding the narrative centrality of the ‘verbal duel’, the lady is
not convinced by the knight’s words but initially by his reputation and his tears, and
then finally by his gesture.

In fact, language itself is shown to break down in the

various exchanges between the potential lovers. Jean-Charles Payen noted that the
reason why, at the end of the first part of the lay, the situation cannot be resolved is
not because of the characters’ inability to come to some sort of an arrangement. The
lady simply cannot accept the knight’s advances because:

[…] le langage galant est impuissant à la persuader, parce que ce
langage est trop souvent celui de la mauvaise foi.

As Jean Larmat points out, gesture replaces language as the means of communicating
true feelings or desires since it is an ‘interprète plus sûr des sentiments profonds’.

other words, stylised discourse, conventional exchanges and arguing from accepted
positions

―

the currency of courtly tradition

―

hide not only what the characters want

to say, but also how they feel. This is why the text’s relationship with the world of
courtly literature is so ambiguous. Notwithstanding Margaret Winters’ assertion that
‘the

Lai de l’Ombre

is essentially a lovers’ dialogue’, the primacy of gesture over

language, as recently shown by Linda Marie Rouillard, is an important factor to
consider when studying Jehan Renart’s text.

See Pauline Matarasso’s brief introduction to her prose translation of the text in

her volume

Aucassin and Nicolette and Other Tales

(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971).

There is here an interesing parallel with pious texts, where a ‘veraie confession’ is

necessarily ‘de cuer’ and accompanied by tears of contrition. The words of the
penitent mean much less than his deeds.

J.-C. Payen, ‘Structure et sens de

Guillaume de Dôle

’, in

Der alfranzösische höfische

Roman

, ed. by E. Köhler (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgeselleschaft, 1978), pp.

170-88 (p. 186).

Jean Larmat, ‘La Morale de Jean Renart dans le

Lai de l’Ombre

’, in

Mélanges de

philologie romane offerts à Charles Camproux

, ed. by Robert Lafont et al., 2 vols

(Montpellier: CEO, 1978), I, pp. 407-16 (p. 411).

Margaret E. Winters,

Jean Renart, The Lai de l’Ombre. Edited from Manuscript E [B.N.

nouv. acq. fr. 1104]

(Birmingham (AL), Summa, 1986), p. 5; Linda Marie Rouillard,

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Characters: the Knight

The knight is the hero of the piece: he identifies his target, pursues her, momentarily
wonders whether his ruse will work, then successfully conquers her thanks to his
skilful strategy and mastery of language. He corresponds to all the necessary virtues
of the courtly knight: loved and desired by women, handsome, noble, generous,
modest, mildly-spoken, unequalled in his

largesse,

but also brilliant in combat. In

short, he is everything a heroic knight should be. But it may be said that the
description found in vv. 53-111 is somewhat ambiguous. It certainly seems to echo
metaphorically his relentless pursuit of the lady, whilst the lack of emphasis placed on
his physical attributes is perhaps significant. The details of his love-pangs and his
falling in love with a lady he has never met are standard

topoi

in courtly literature. His

lack of a true

amie

is not, however, and the lady’s reaction to this piece of news may

be read either as an innovation on the courtly love theme or as a satirical comment.

The knight is undoubtedly clever. We witness this from the very

beginning

―

he manipulates his riding companions and questions them somewhat

disingenuously about the lady

―

and then is the lady’s equal throughout their verbal

jousts. But are his ability to keep his intentions secret from his companions, and his
not-quite-conventional courting of the lady, to be admired or criticised? What is
skilled ‘lovemanship’ for some is devious deception for others.

Ultimately, the knight is an intriguing character whom the reader feels he

knows well, and yet surely does not. He appears to be all things conventionally
required of a courtly hero, but has more depth to his character than the caricatures
which we are used to encountering in longer romances. One thing is beyond any
doubt, however: he is eminently suited to the lady of the lay.

Characters: the Lady

It should first be noted that the lady in the

Lai de l’Ombre

is married. She alludes to

her husband in vv. 494-95, as does the knight in the following two lines. The topic of
her husband only once reappears, when the lady tries to justify taking a lover (vv.
698-99). In one of Marie de France’s

Lais,

a husband might typically provide the

obstacle to a couple’s love; for example, in

Yonec

Chevrefoil

Laüstic

. In romance, a

husband is practically

de rigueur

for courtly, adulterous love to be truly courtly. In the

Lai de l’Ombre

, however, the husband is neither an obstacle

―

he is hardly mentioned

at all

―

nor some sort of validating presence. The obstacle is in fact the lady herself,

either her hesitancy to commit herself to a lover

―

the fact that it would be extra-

marital seems neither here nor there in her reasoning

―

or her desire to be skillfully

wooed. She is described as being beautiful, courtly and wise and subsequently proves
to be sensible and worldly

―

she replies to the knight’s initial advances

par molt biau

sens

(v. 376)

―

and is even a little flirtatious:

‘Si biaus hon de cors et de mains,

de braz, et de toute autre rien!’ (vv. 382-83)

‘You can lead a lady to water, but can you make her drink? Rings of rhetoric in Jean
Renart’s

Le Lai de l’Ombre

’,

Chimères

, 25 (1998-99), 59-70.

Introduction

We witness her skilled arguments and, it must be said, conventional protestations.
But there is nothing conventional about the way she is finally won over: a knight’s
words would normally suffice for him to win an

amie

, but here it is the knight’s

ruse

―

or, depending on your point of view, his extra-courtly gesture

―

that is the key

to his success. Her feelings as the poem progresses are uncertain. At what point is
she ready to give in? Just to what extent is her initial refusal of the knight’s love
sincere? But we can be sure of one thing: she is no dupe and enters the relationship
willingly and with her eyes wide open.

Style

Composing in octosyllabic rhyming couplets, Jehan Renart places dialogue very
much at the centre of the

Lai de l’Ombre

. The text is quite unlike Marie de France’s

Lais

in this respect, and perhaps closer to longer courtly romances. Dialogue is

expertly handled and not merely a succession of semantically unrelated monologues.
The

Lai de l’Ombre

is full of ‘realistic’ details of contemporary life and contains no

element which could remotely be described as ‘supernatural’. Although presented as
a didactic text, the

Lai de l’Ombre

could equally be interpreted as an invitation to

debate, not unlike other lays (and even some

fabliaux

). Its primary role, of course, is

to entertain. Jehan Renart’s position is often described as one of detached
amusement. This suggests that he is content to set up an ambiguous situation and
then step back in order to allow the reader to judge. He is an extremely proficient
poet whose predilection for language and language-games is evident throughout the
text. There are, for example, rhymed homonyms which intentionally blur meaning,
and also a number of puns. Colloquial expressions are used in unexpected places, and
as a whole the text stands out for its interlacing of registers and styles. For example,
just how much does Jehan Renart bow to the conventions of the

style courtois

? And do

exaggerations or strange juxtapositions necessarily imply that he is writing tongue-in-
cheek? Certainly there is wit aplenty. Proverbs,

annominatio

, and litotes are found

shoulder-to-shoulder with colloquialisms, leading scholars to suggest that he is
poking fun at courtly conventions. All of the above, plus the richness of the rhymes,
broken couplets and enjambments, add to the poem’s variations in rhythm, narrative
flow and overall elegance.

Conclusion

Translating the

Lai de l’Ombre

has only confirmed to me what a difficult text this is,

and yet how rewarding its study can be. It is difficult linguistically, partly since there
is much talk of abstract, as opposed to concrete, concepts, and partly due to the fact
that Jehan Renart is such a skilled poet. It is also difficult psychologically since the
reader is never absolutely sure of the knight’s intentions, nor of the lady’s feelings.
On the surface, he is a great lover and she, persuaded by his words and gesture,
eventually reciprocates his love. But ambiguities abound, and it is largely these
ambiguities which make the text so rewarding to study. Every reader can have his or
her own opinion, or may hold the same opinion but for different reasons. Romantic
ambiguity, potential conflict and the anticipation of coming together sexually are all
subjects which are hardly confined to thirteenth-century literature: the

Lai de l’Ombre

Le Lai de l’Ombre

has just as much immediacy to us today as for its contemporary audience. At just
under 1,000 lines the text is short enough to be accessible to students and to general
readers alike, but long enough to sustain debate and discussion. One would like to
think that the discussions we still hold today concerning the

Lai de l’Ombre

would

have brought a wry and knowing smile to the face of its author.

Note on the Present Translation

The present translation aims to offer, as far as possible, a line-by-line reading of the
Old French. It is therefore less ‘creative’ than verse, and less ‘free’ than prose. This
does not always lead to an idiomatic translation, but is intended to help those using
the translation as an aid to reading the Old French. For this reason, I have also
attempted to reproduce the punctuation from the Hindley and Levy edition, although
again this was not always possible. I have occasionally substituted nouns for
pronouns where a pronoun in English would lead to confusion, and also added
nouns [

in italics

] where the syntax requires some explanation. The one ‘radical’

decision I have taken is to use the preterite as the narrative tense throughout. Old
French allows for a mixture of narrative tenses, but whereas in that language such a
practice heightens dramatic effect, in English it can lead to confusion. As the
teaching of medieval literature becomes more interdisciplinary, and as a result more
dependent on texts in translation, it is hoped that the present translation will be of
interest to both students and scholars alike. The

Lai de l’Ombre

is without any doubt a

gem of a text which deserves to be read, studied and appreciated.

Bibliography

Editions

Bédier, Joseph,

Le Lai de l’Ombre par Jean Renart

, SATF, 104 (Paris: Firmin-Didot,

1913). Edited from MS A. Reprint of

Le Lai de l’Ombre

, ed. by Joseph Bédier,

Fribourg: Imprimerie et Librairie de l’Œuvre de Saint-Paul, 1890 (Index lectionum
quae in Universitate Friburgensi per menses aestivos anni 1890, inde a die 15 aprilis
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Jean Renart: El lai de la sombra; el lai de Aristóteles; La Castellana de

Vergi

(Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 1986). Edited from

MS A, pp. 14-75.

Hindley, Alan, Frederick W. Langley, Brian J. Levy and Cedric E. Pickford,

Jehan

Renart: Le Lay de l’Ombre, Edited from MS B.N. nouvelles acquisitions 1104

(Hull:

University of Hull Department of French, 1977). Reprinted 1985.

Jubinal, Achille,

Lettres à M. le comte de Salvandy sur quelques-uns des manuscrits de la

Bibliothèque Royale de la Haye

(Paris: Didron, 1846). Edited from MS F, pp. 154-76.

Lecoy, Félix,

Jean Renart: Le Lai de l’Ombre

, CFMA 104 (Paris: Champion, 1979).

Edited from MS A.

Limentani, Alberto,

Jean Renart, l’immagine riflessa: introduzione, traduzione e note

(Turin:

Giulio Einaudi, 1970). Edited from MS A.

Michel, Francisque,

Lais inédits des XII

et XIII

siècles, publiés pour la première fois, d’après

les manuscrits de France et d’Angleterre

(Paris: Techener; London: Pickering, 1836). Edited

from MS A.

Orr, John,

Jehan Renart: Le Lai de l’Ombre

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

1948). Edited from MS E.

Winters, Margaret E.,

Jean Renart, The Lai de l’Ombre. Edited from Manuscript E [B.N.

nouv. acq. fr. 1104]

(Birmingham (AL): Summa, 1986).

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Facsimiles

Faral, Edmond,

Le Manuscrit 19152 du Fonds français de la Bibliotheque Nationale,

Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Manuscrits (Paris: Droz, 1934).

Omont, Henri,

Fabliaux, dits et contes en vers français du XIII

siècle; facsimile du manuscrit

français 837 de la Bibliothèque Nationale

(Genève: Slatkine, 1973).

Translations

Carmona, Fernando,

Jean Renart: El lai de la sombra; el lai de Aristóteles; la castellana de

Vergi

(Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 1986). Facing Spanish

prose translation, pp. 26-75.

Goodrich, Norma L.,

The Ways of Love: Eleven Romances from Medieval France

(London:

Allen and Unwin, 1965). English prose translation, pp. 198-214.

Limentani, Alberto,

Jean Renart, l’immagine riflessa: introduzione, traduzione e note

(Turin:

Giulio Einaudi, 1970). Facing Italian prose translation, pp. 30-79.

Mary, André,

La Chambre des dames

, 3rd edn (Paris: Boivin, 1922). French prose

translation.

Matarasso, Pauline,

Aucassin and Nicolette and Other Tales

(Harmondsworth: Penguin

Books, 1971). English prose translation, pp. 64-79.

Riquer, Isabel de,

Nueve Lais Bretones y La Sombra de Jean Renart

(Madrid: Siruela,

1987). Spanish prose translation, pp. 135-62.

Terry, Patricia Ann,

Lays of Courtly Love in Verse Translation

(Garden City, NY:

Anchor, 1963). English verse translation, pp. 67-97.

Terry, Patricia Ann,

The Honeysuckle and the Hazel Tree: Medieval Stories of Men and

Women

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). Revised English verse

translation, pp. 149-78.

Studies

Adler, Alfred, ‘Rapprochement et éloignement comme thèmes du

Lai de l’Ombre

’, in

Études de philologie romane et d’histoire littéraire offertes à Jules Horrent à l’occasion de son
soixantième anniversaire

, ed. by Jean-Marie d’Heur and Nicoletta Cherubini (Liège [–

Tournai]: Gedit, 1980), pp. 1-4.

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Dol

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pp. 45-82.

Bédier, Joseph,

La Tradition manuscrite du Lai de l’Ombre: réflexions sur l’art d’éditer les

textes anciens

(Paris: Champion, 1929).

Beekman, Pauline Harriet,

Jean Renart and his Writings

(Paris: Droz, 1935).

Burgess, Glyn S., ‘

Sens

and

cortoisie

in the

Lai de l’Ombre

’, in

Contemporary Readings of

Medieval Literature

ed. by Guy Mermier, Michigan Romance Studies, 8 (Ann Arbor:

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Burgess, Glyn S., ‘The role of the heart in the

Lai de l’Ombre

and the

Chastelaine de

Vergi

’, in

Conjunctures. Medieval Studies in Honor of Douglas Kelly

, ed. by Keith Busby and

Norris J. Lacy (Atlanta – Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994), pp. 31-47.

Burgess, Glyn S., ‘

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’, in Id.,

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Lai de l’Ombre

manuscripts: techniques

and principles’,

Association for Literature and Language Computing Journal

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Lai de l’Ombre

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Lai de l’Ombre

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’,

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’, in

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, ed. by Robert Lafont et al., 2 vols (Montpellier:

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Lecoy, Félix, ‘Variations sur le texte du

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’,

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Le doit mainuel

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, ed. by

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l’œuvre présumée de Jean Renart’,

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Lai de l’Ombre

’,

Romania

, 58 (1932), 436-41.

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XIII

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’, in

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, ed. by Robert Bossuat et al. (Paris: Fayard, 1964), pp. 428-29, 449-50.

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’,

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, 36 (1993), 59-71.

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’, in

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’,

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by Christopher Kleinhenz (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1976), pp. 103-
16.

f. 54c

CE EST LE LAY DE L’OMBRE

f. 54d

Ne me veil pas desaüser

De bien dire, ainz veil user

Mon sens en el quë estre oiseus.

Je ne veil pas resembler ceus

Qui sont oiseus por tout destruire;

Mes, puis que j’é le sens d’estruire

Aucun bien en dit et en fet,

Vilains est qui ses gas en fet,

Quant ma cortoisie s’aoevre

A dire aucune plesant oevre

Ou il n’a rampone ne lait.

Fox est qui por parole lait

Bien a dire, por qu’il le sache;

Et s’aucuns fox sa langue en sache

Par derriere, tot ce li loit,

Que nient plus que je puis cest doit

Faire ausi lonc conme cestui,

Ne cuit je quë on peüst hui

Fere un felon debonere estre;

Et miex vient de bone eure nestre

Qu’estre des bons, c’est dit pieça.

Par Guillaume, qui despeça

L’escolfle et art un et un membre,

Si con cis contes nos remembre,

Puet on prover que je di voir,

Que miex vaut a un home avoir

Eür que parenz në amis:

Amis muert, et on est tost mis

Hors de l’avoir, qui bien nu garde;

Et qui a fol le met en garde,

Sachiez que tost le gaste et use.

Aprés, sa folie s’acuse,

Qu’il l’a despendu sanz mesure.

Se d’ilec avant amesure

Ses sens, sa folie entrelet

Et mesaventure le let,

f. 55a

Eürs le r’a tost mis em pris;

E por cë ai cest lai empris,

Que je voil mon sens desploier

A bien dire et a souploier

A la hautesce de l’Eslit.

Molt par me torne a grant delit

THIS IS THE LAY OF THE REFLECTION

I do not wish to refrain

From fair speech; on the contrary, I want to put

My wits to a use which is not idle.

I have no wish to resemble those

Who are worthless and destroy everything;

But, since I have the ability to create

Something worthwhile in word and in deed,

He is a mean-minded person who makes fun,

Whenever my noble sentiments display themselves

In creating some pleasing work

In which there is neither coarse abuse nor vileness.

He is a fool who, merely for what might be said about him,

Fails to relate something seemly if he knows to be so;

And if some fool makes fun of me

Behind my back, then let him do so,

For no more than I can make

This finger as long as that one

Do I think that one can today

Make a wretch noble of spirit;

And it is better to be born under a lucky star

Than to be born noble, as was said a long time ago.

Through the example of Guillaume, who dismembered

The kite and burnt each piece,

As the story reminds us,

We can prove that I speak the truth;

For it is better for a man to have

Good fortune than family or friends:

A friend can die, and we soon run out

Of money if we do not look after it;

And whoever invests it foolishly

Quickly wastes and spends it all, as you well know.

Then his folly is revealed,

For he has spent it without moderation.

But if from then on he tempers

His reason, renounces his foolish ways,

And if bad luck ceases to pursue him,

Good fortune will quickly in its turn embrace him;

And for this reason I have undertaken this lay,

For I wish to display my talents

In composing a good poem and in bowing

To His Grace the Bishop Elect.

It gives me great pleasure

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Quant la volenté m’est eslite

A fere ce que me delite:

D’une aventure metre en rime.

On dit, ‘Qui bien nage, bien rime’.

Qui de haute mer vient a rive,

Fox est së a la mer estrive;

Miex l’em prisent et roi et conte.

Or escoutez en icest conte

Que ferai, s’aucuns ne m’encombre,

Et dirai ci, du Lay de l’Ombre.

Ci dit quë uns chevaliers iere

En cele marche de l’Empiere

De Loheraingne et d’Alemaingne.

Je ne cuit pas con tex en maingne

De Chaalons jusqu’en Perchois

Qui eüst toutes a son chois

Bones teches conme cil ot.

De maintes resemble au fil Lot,

Gauvain, si conme nos dison;

Mes je n’oï onques son non,

Ne je ne sai se point en ot.

Proesce et cortoisie l’ot

Eslit a estre suen demainne;

De la despense qu’il demainne

Se merveillent tuit si acointe.

Ne trop emparlé ne trop cointe

Nu trovissiez por sa proesce.

II n’estoit pas de grant richesce,

Mes il se savoit bien avoir;

Bien sot prandre en un leu l’avoir

Et metre la ou point n’en ot.

Pucele ne dame n’en ot

Parler que durement [nu] prist;

N’onques a nule ne s’emprist

f. 55b

A certes quë il n’en fust bien:

Car il estoit sor toute rien

Et frans et doz et debonnere.

Qanque chascuns en vosist fere,

En peüst fere entor ostel;

Mes as armes autre que tel

Le trovast on [que je ne di]:

Estout et ireus et hardi

Quant il avoit l’eaume en son chief.

Bien sot un renc de chief en chief

The Lay of the Reflection

To have been chosen

To do what brings me happiness:

To put an adventure-story into rhyme.

They say ‘Steer well, rhyme well’.

He who comes ashore from the high seas

Is a fool to upbraid the sea,

As kings and counts esteem him more for his success.

Now listen to this tale

Which

―

if I am not hindered

―

I will tell

And I recount here: the

Lay of the Reflection

This story is of a knight

In that borderland of the Empire

Of Lorraine and Germany.

I do not believe there was anyone like him

Dwelling between Châlons and the Perchois

Who could have laid claim

To as many good qualities as he.

In many of these he resembled Lot’s son

Whom we know as Gauvain;

However, I never heard his name,

Nor do I know if he had one.

Prowess and courtliness had

Chosen him as their kinsman;

His lavish spending

Amazed all of those who knew him.

Yet you would not have found him too talkative

Nor too proud, for all his prowess.

He was not of great wealth,

But he knew very well how to conduct his affairs;

He well knew how to take money from one place

And put it where there was none.

No maiden or lady heard speak of him

Who did not hold him in high esteem;

Nor did he ever pay attention to any woman

Without being well received:

For he was above all else

Noble and generous of spirit.

Whatever dealings anyone might wish to have with him,

He was eminently approachable in social surroundings;

But when it came to fighting you would

Find him a very different person from my description:

He was daring and violent and courageous

When he had his helmet on his head.

He knew well how to ride up and down a line of knights

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Cerchier por une joste fere.

A cë ot torné son afere

Li chevaliers dont je vos di,

Qu’il vosist que chascun lundi

Qu[ë] il estoit qu’il en fust deus!

Onques chevalier ne fist Deus

Si preu d’armes conme il estoit.

Ce n’estoit pas cil qui vestoit

Sa robe d’esté en yver;

Plus donnoit il et gris et ver

C’uns autres de dis tanz d’avoir;

Et tot jorz voloit il avoir

Set conpaignons, ou cinc au mains.

100

Ne ja riens ne tenist as mains,

S’en le vosist, qu’en ne l’eüst.

Deduiz d’oisiaus, [quant] li leüst,

Ama, que je ne despris mie;

104

Il sot d’eschés et d’escremie

Et d’autres geus plus que Tristans.

Molt bon mai ot un bien lonc tans

Et molt se fist amer as genz.

108

Il ert de cors et biaux et genz

Et frans et legiers et isneaus,

Et si estoit plus preuz que beaus

Et tot ce doit chevaliers estre.

112

Amors, qui est et dame et mestre,

En ce bon point li corut seure,

Quë ele en velt estre au deseure,

Et si veut avoir le treü

116

Du grant deduit qu’il ot eü

f. 55c

De mainte dame en son aage.

N’onques servise në honmage

Ne li fist, entreues qu’il li lut.

120

Por ce qu’il ne se reconnut

N’a son honme n’a son bailleu,

Si li fist en tens et en lieu

Sentir son pooir et sa force:

124

C’onques Tristans, qui fu a force

Tonduz conme fox por Yseut,

N’ot le tierz d’ahan quë il eut

De si qu’il en ot sa pais faite.

128

Ele li a saiete traite

Par mi le cors dusqu’au panon:

La grant biauté et le doz non

D’une dame li mist el cuer.

The Lay of the Reflection

To find someone to joust with him.

He spent so much of his time tourneying,

The knight of whom I speak,

That he wished there to be

Two tournament Mondays in a week!

Never had God made a knight

As skilled at combat as he.

He was not one to wear

His summer clothes in winter.

He gave away more grey fur and miniver

Than many ten times richer;

And every day he wished to have

Seven companions, or at least five.

100

If anyone desired anything he possessed,

Then he would receive it.

When time allowed, he enjoyed falconry,

For which I do not think badly of him;

104

He was skilled at chess and fencing

And other games, more so than Tristan.

He lived very happily for a long time

And won the affection of all.

108

He had a fair and handsome body,

Was comely, slim and nimble,

Yet his valour was greater than his beauty:

He was all a knight should be.

112

Love, who is both mistress and master,

Chose this precise moment to assail him,

Because she wanted to gain the upper hand over him,

And receive due payment

116

For the numerous pleasures he had enjoyed

With many ladies in his lifetime.

Never had he served or paid homage to her

Whilst he could get away with it.

120

Because he did not admit

To being either her vassal or her steward,

She chose the right time and place to make him

Feel her power and strength:

124

For never did Tristan, who with scissors

Had his head shaved as a madman for the sake of Iseut,

Feel even a third of the distress that our knight suffered

Until he made his peace with her.

128

She shot her arrow

Into his body, right up to the flight:

The great beauty and sweet name

Of a certain lady was implanted in his heart.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

132

Or li estuet ageter puer

Toutes les autres por cestui.

De maintes s’en estoit parti

Son cuer, que nule n’en amoit;

136

Mes or set il sanz doute et voit

Qu’il li covient tot mestre ensemble

Por ceste servir, qui li semble

Li rubis de toutes biautez.

140

Li sens, la debonneretez,

La grant biauté de son cler vis

Li est, ce li est bien avis,

Devant ses eulz et jor et nuit.

144

N’est joie qui ne li ennuit,

Fors que li pensers a cesti.

De tant li a bon plet basti

Amors, qu’il la connoissoit bien;

148

C’onques nule si plesant rien

Qui fame fust n’avoit veüe,

Ce dist, et s’en tret sa veüe

A garant qu’il a dit verité.

152

‘Ahi!’ fet il, ‘tente averté

J’ai fet de moi, et tant dangier!

Or velt Dex par cesti vengier

Celes qui m’ont seules amé.

156

Certes, mar ai desaamé!’

f. 55d

Fet cil qui d’Amors ert seurpris.

‘Or m’a Amors en tel point pris

Qu’ele veut que son pooir sache;

160

C’onques vilains cui barbiers sache

Les denz ne fu si angoisseus!’

Ce pense et dit quant il est seus;

Ne ja son vuel ne fesist el,

164

C’onques mes hom en si cruel

Point ne fu, conme Amors l’a mis.

‘Las!’ fet il, ‘se je sui amis,

Que sera ce, s’el n’est amie?

168

Je ne sai, ne je ne voi mie,

Conment je puisse vivre un jor!

Deduiz d’errer ne de sejor

Ne m’i puet mon mal alaschier.

172

Or n’i a fors du tenir chier

Ceus qui la vont ou ele maint,

Car par ce fere ont eü maint

De lor dames joie et solaz.

176

Car m’eüst ceste fet un laz

The Lay of the Reflection

132

Now he had to shun

All others for her.

He had withdrawn his heart from many women,

None of whom he loved;

136

But now he saw it all, and realised without any doubt

That he had to do his utmost

To serve this lady, who seemed to him

A ruby among lovely women.

140

Her wit, her breeding,

The great beauty of her bright face,

All this, or so it seemed to him, was

Night and day before his eyes.

144

Now all his pleasures wearied him,

Except that of thinking of her.

So expertly did love attack him

That he became only too aware of her power;

148

Never had he seen so pleasing

A thing in female form,

He said, and he called on his eyesight

To witness that he had told the truth.

152

‘Oh!’ he sighed, ‘so miserly

Have I been with my love, and so aloof!

Now God wishes to use her to avenge

All those women who have loved me in vain.

156

I realise I should never have scorned them so!’

Said he who was so overcome by Love.

‘Now Love has me where she wants me,

And she wants me to feel her power;

160

For never did a wretch having teeth pulled

By a barber feel such pain!’

This is what he thought and said when he was alone;

And as far as he was concerned he could do nothing else,

164

For never was a man dealt with

So cruelly as did Love deal with him.

‘Alas!’ he said, ‘if I love her,

What will happen if she does not love me?

168

I do not know, nor do I ever see

How I could live a single day!

Whether I travel or stay at home, there are no pleasures

That can alleviate my suffering.

172

My only course is to befriend

Those who go to visit her,

For in this way have many

Found joy and comfort from their ladies.

176

If only the lady I love had made a noose

Le Lai de l’Ombre

De ses deus braz entor le col!

Tote nuit songe que l’acol

Et qu’ele m’estraint et embrace.

180

Li esveilliers me desembrace

En ce qu’i plus me delitast;

Lors quier par mon lit et atast

Son biau cors qui m’art et esprant.

184

Mes, las! ‘qui ne trueve ne prent’!

C’est avenu moi et maint autre

Mainte foiz. Or ne puet estre autre;

Aler ou envoier m’estuet

188

Proier, puis qu’autre estre ne puet,

Qu’ele ait merci de moi en fin,

Et que, por Deu, ainz que je fin,

Qu’ele ait pitié de ma destresce,

192

Et que par sa grant gentillesce

Qu’ele me gart et vie et sens.

Il i avroit un mains des siens

S’ele soffroit que je morisse;

196

S’est bien droiz que de son cuer isse

f. 57a

Pitiez et douceurs de ses euz.

Si cuit bien qu’i me vauroit miez

Li alers, que se g’i envoi;

200

On dit, ‘N’i a tel conme soi’:

Ne nus n’iroit si volentiers!

On dit pieça que li mestiers

Aprent l’ome, et la grant sofrete.

204

Puis que g’i ai parole atrete,

Il n’i a se d’aler la non

Dire qu’ele a en sa prison

Mon cuer, [qui] de gré s’i est mis.

208

Ja, devant qu’il ait non ‘amis’,

N’en quier[t] eschaper por destrece;

Gentilesce, pitiez, largece

La devroit a cë esmovoir.’

212

Il s’est atornez por movoir,

Soi tierz de conpaingnons sanz plus.

Ne sai que vos dëisse plus:

Il monte, et vallet jusq’a sis.

216

Il chevauche liez et pensis

A son pensé et a sa voie;

Ses conpaingnons oste et desvoie

De la voie et de son penser,

220

Qu’il ne se puissent apenser

A la reson de son voiage.

The Lay of the Reflection

Around my neck with her two arms!

All night I dream that I embrace her

And that she grasps me tightly and holds me close.

180

But waking up tears me away from this embrace

Before I can achieve the greatest of pleasures;

Then I search my bed and feel for

Her lovely body which burns and enflames me.

184

But, alas! ‘You cannot have what you cannot find!’

This has happened to me and many others

Many times. There’s nothing else for it;

I must go or send someone

188

To beg her

―

since I have no other option

―

In the end to have mercy on me,

And for God’s sake, before I die,

To take pity on my anguish,

192

And by her great kindness

To preserve my life and sanity.

There would be one less of her lieges

If she allowed me to die;

196

It is only right that from her heart should come

Compassion and from her eyes tenderness.

Indeed, I believe that I would do better

To go myself, rather than send someone;

200

‘A man is his own best friend’, as they say:

And no one else would go there so willingly!

They say that necessity

Is the mother of invention, as also is adversity.

204

Since I have used a proverb to support me,

All that remains is to go there

To tell her that in her prison

Lies my heart, a willing captive.

208

Never, until it earns the name ‘lover’,

Will it seek to escape its anguish;

Her nobility of heart, compassion and generosity

Should move her to this.’

212

He prepared to set off,

Himself and just two companions.

I do not know what else to tell you:

He mounted, accompanied by no fewer than six squires.

216

He rode out, rendered at once happy and pensive

By his plan and by his journey;

His companions he led astray, concealing from them

Both route and intention,

220

So that they would not suspect

The true reason for his journey.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Il dit qu’il chevauche a grant rage,

Celant son pensé et sa voie,

224

Tant qu’il vinrent a la monjoie

Du chastel ou cele manoit.

Fet li sires qui les menoit,

‘Vëez con cis chastiaus siet bien!’

228

Il nel disoit pas tant por rien

Qu’il montast as fossez n’as murs,

Con por savoir se ses eürs

L’avoit encor si haut monté

232

Qu’il parlassent de [la] bonté

De la dame qu’il va veoir.

Font cil : ‘Vos devrïez avoir

Grant honte, car mal avez fet,

236

Qui ançois nos avez retret

f. 57b

Le chastel que la bele dame,

Dont chascuns dit bien qu’el roiaume

N’a si cortoise ne si bele.

240

Or tot coi!’ font il, ‘que së ele

Savoit con vos avez mespris,

Il vos venroit miex estre pris

As Turs et menez en Chaëre!’

244

Il dit en sozriant a ere:

‘Or seignors, or tot belement!

Menez me un [poi] mains durement,

Car je n’i ai mort deservie!

248

Il n’en est nus dont j’aie envie

Des chastiaus, se de cestui non;

Je vorroie estre en la prison

Salehadin cinc anz ou sis,

252

Par si quë il fust miens asis

Si conme est, qu’en fusse seürs,

Et qanqu’il a dedenz les murs.’

Font il: ‘Vos serïez trop sire!’

256

Il n’entendent pas a son dire

Le sofisme qu’il lor fesoit;

Li bons chevaliers nu disoit

Fors por oïr mon qu’il diroient.

260

Il lor demande s’i l’iroient

Veoir. ‘Que feromes nos donques?’

Font cil, ‘Chevaliers ne doit onques

Trespasser n’e[n] chemin n’e[n] voie

264

Bele dame, qu’il ne la voie.’

Fet cil: ‘Je m’en tien bien a vos;

Et si le veil et lo que nos

The Lay of the Reflection

He merely said he was taking a gallop,

And so hid his purpose and his destination,

224

Until they came to the roadside outpost

Belonging to the castle where she dwelt.

The young lord exclaimed to his retinue:

‘See how well that castle is situated!’

228

He did not say it because there was any importance

In its ditches and walls, as much as

In order to know if his luck

Rode high enough

232

For them to speak of the excellence

Of the lady he was going to see.

They replied: ‘You should be

Ashamed indeed, for you have done wrong

236

To mention the castle to us

before the beautiful lady

Of whom it is said by all that in the whole kingdom

There is not one so courtly and fair.

240

Now be silent!’ they continued, ‘for if she

Knew how you had wronged her,

It would be better for you to be taken

By the Turks and led off to Cairo!’

244

Then he said with a smile:

‘Now, my lords, gently does it!

Go a little less hard on me,

For I have not deserved to be put to death!

248

There is not a single castle I desire,

With the exception of this one;

I would gladly be in Saladin’s prison

For five or six years,

252

Provided it was handed over to me just

As it is, and that it was securely mine,

Together with all that lies within its walls.’

They replied: ‘You would be taking a great deal!’

256

They did not catch in his words

The double meaning of what he was saying to them;

The good knight had phrased things

Deliberately, in order to hear what they would say.

260

He asked them if they wanted to go

And take a look. ‘What else would we do?’

They replied, ‘a knight should never

Pass by a beautiful lady on his travels or on a journey

264

Without seeing her.’

He replied: ‘I bow to your advice,

I have made up my mind and wish us

Le Lai de l’Ombre

I alons, quant resons l’aporte.’

268

Atant guenchissent vers la porte

Chascuns la teste du destrier,

Criant: ‘As armes, chevalier!’

A tel voiage, tel tençon!

272

Sou frain s’en vont a esperon,

Tant qu’il vinrent en la ferté;

Il ont un novel baille outré,

Clos de fossez et de paliz.

276

Li sire avoit devant son pis

f. 57c

Torné son mantel en chantel

Et seurcot d’ermine molt bel

De soie en graine et d’escureus.

280

Autretel avoit chascons d’eus

Et chemise ridee et blanche,

Et chapel de flors et de vanche,

Et esperons a or vermaus.

284

Je ne sai conment fussent miaus

Plesanment vestu por l’esté.

Il ne sont nul leu aresté

Jusqu’au perron devant la sale;

288

Chascuns vallez encontre avale

As estriers, par fine reson.

Li seneschaus de la meson

Les vit descendre enmi la cort;

292

D’une loge ou il er[t] s’en tort

Dire sa dame la novele

Que cil la vient veoir quë ele

Connoissoit bien par oïr dire.

296

N’en devint pas vermeille d’ire

La dame, ainz en ot grant merveille.

Desor une coute vermeille

Avoit esté tantost trecie;

300

Ele s’est en estant drecie,

La dame de tres grant biauté.

Ses puceles li ont geté

Au col un mantel de samit,

304

Avec la grant biauté c’ot mis

Nature en li, si con l’en conte.

Que qu’ele volt aler encontre,

Cil se hastent tant de[l] venir

308

Q’ançois qu’ele peüst venir

De la chambre i sont il entré.

Au semblant que lor a mostré,

Li est il bel de [lor] venue;

The Lay of the Reflection

To go there, since reason recommends it.’

268

Thereupon each man turned

The head of his steed towards the gate,

Crying: ‘To arms, knights!’

For such an errand, such a rivalry!

272

Riding hard and on a tight rein,

They came to the castle;

They crossed a new bailey

Enclosed by moats and palisades.

276

The knight had his mantle

Slung to the side over one shoulder,

To reveal his fine, richly-dyed silken surcoat,

lined with ermine and trimmed with miniver.

280

Each one of them had similar attire

And wore white pleated shirts.

On their heads were crowns of periwinkles and other flowers,

And on their feet were red-gold spurs.

284

I do not know how they could be

More agreeably dressed in summer.

They did not halt

Until they came to the mounting-block before the great hall;

288

A squire ran up to each of them,

Standing by their stirrups, as etiquette required.

The seneschal of the house

Saw them dismount in the courtyard;

292

He left the gallery where he stood

To tell his lady the news

That the man she knew so well

By hearsay had come to see her.

296

It was not in anger that the lady blushed,

But rather because of the great surprise this caused her.

Seated on a red cushion

she had just had her hair plaited;

300

She rose to her feet,

This most beautiful lady.

Her maids threw

A rich silk cloak around her shoulders,

304

Adding to the great beauty which,

According to all reports, Nature had bestowed upon her.

Although she wanted to go and meet them,

They came towards her in such haste

308

That even before she was able to leave

Her chamber they were already on the threshhold.

Judging by the way she greeted them,

Their arrival pleased her;

Le Lai de l’Ombre

312

De tant pou con ele est venue

Encontre eus se font il molt lié.

Un chainse blanc et delié

Ot vestu la preuz, la cortoise,

316

Qui trainoit plus d’une toise

f. 57d

Aprés li, seur les jons menuz.

‘Sire, bien soiez vos venuz,

Et vo compaingnon ambedui!’

320

Dit cele qui bon jor ait hui,

Qu’ele est bien digne de l’avoir.

Si conpaignon li distrent voir

Qu’el n’est pas dame a trespasser:

324

Sa biauté les fet trespenser

Touz troi, en lor saluz rendant.

Ele prent par la main, riant,

Le seignor, sel mainne seoir.

328

Or a auques de son voloir,

Quant delez li se fu assis!

Si conpaingnon sont bien apris:

Asis sont, ne li firent cuivre,

332

Sor un coffre ferré de cuivre,

Aveques ses deus damoiseles.

Que qu’il se deduient a eles

En demandant plusors aferes,

336

Lor bons sires ne pensoit gueres

A eus, ainz pense a son afere;

Mes la gentil, la debonnere,

Li set bien rendre par parole

340

Reson de qanqu’il l’aparole,

Qu’ele estoit molt cortoise et sage.

Cil li met adés el visage

Les eulz por mirer sa biauté;

344

Molt les a bien pris a verté

Ses cuers, qui s’est toz en li mis;

Que de quanqu’il li ot promis,

Li tesmoingnent il ore bien,

348

Qu’il ne li ont menti de rien:

Molt li plet ses vis et sa chiere.

‘Bele tresdouce amie chiere’,

Fet il, ‘por qui force de cuer

352

Me fet gerpir et geter puer

De toutes [autres] mon penser,

Je vos sui venuz presenter

Qanque jë ai force et pooir;

356

Si en puisse je joie avoir,

The Lay of the Reflection

312

The short distance she moved

In their direction delighted them.

The worthy, courtly lady wore

A smooth white tunic,

316

Which trailed more than two yards

Behind her over the rushes on the floor.

‘My lord, you are most welcome,

As are your two companions!’

320 Said

she

―

may this day bring her pleasure,

For she deserves no less.

His companions had spoken the truth

When they said that this was not a lady to pass by:

324

Her beauty made all three

Marvel at her as they returned her greeting.

Laughing, she took the lord by the hand

And led him to a seat.

328

Now he had part of his desire,

When he was seated next to her!

His companions knew what to do:

They sat down, without obtruding on him,

332

On a chest decorated with copper,

With two of her maidens.

Whilst they passed time with them,

Discussing a number of things,

336

Their good lord hardly thought

Of them, thinking rather of his own situation;

But the noble, elegant lady

Knew well how to give due reply

340

To everything he said to her,

Since she was most courtly and wise.

He constantly had his eyes on her face

To gaze upon her beauty;

344

His heart—which was devotedly hers—

Did well to appeal to his eyes,

For they duly bore full witness

To everything about her it had promised him,

348

And they did not mislead him in the slightest:

Her face and countenance pleased him enormously.

‘Lovely, sweetest, dear friend’,

He said, ‘for whom my heart commands me

352

To shun and exclude

All others from my thoughts,

I have come to give you

All that is within my strength and power;

356

And may it bring me joy,

Le Lai de l’Ombre

f. 56a

Qu’il n’est rien nule que j’ain tant

Conme vos, se Dex repentant

Me let venir a sa merci;

360

Et por ce sui ge venuz ci,

Que je veil que vos le sachiez,

Et que gentillece et pitiez

Vos en praigne, qu’il est mestiers;

364

Que qui en feroit as mostiers

Oroison, si feroit il bien,

Por ceus qui n’entendent a rien

S’a estre non loial ami.’

368

‘A, sire! por l’ame de mi’,

Fet ele, ‘qu’avez vos ore dit?

Molt me merveil! Dont sifet dit?’

‘Dame’, fet il, ‘je vos di voir.

372

Vos toute seule avez pooir

Sor moi, plus que dame qui vive.’

La colors l’en croit et avive,

De ce qu’il dit qu’il est toz sens.

376

Puis li a dit par molt biau sens:

‘Certes, sire, je ne croi mie

Que si biaus hon soit sanz amie

Con vos estes; nus nu creroit.

380

Vostre pris en abesseroit,

Et si en vaurïez molt mains—

Si biaus hon de cors et de mains,

De braz, et de toute autre rien!

384

Vos me savrïez ja molt bien

Par parole parmi l’ueil trere

La plume, et ce c’on ne doit fere

Fere a entendre, par verté!’

388

Bien l’a en son venir hurté

Par parole, et desfet son conte -

Si con cil qui m’aprist le conte

Le m’a fet por voir entendant.

392

Il se sueffre a mener tendant,

Qu’il n’estoit riens que tant amast.

S’uns autres la mesaamast,

Il s’en seüst bien revengier;

396

Mes il ert si en son dangier

f. 56b

Qu’il ne l’osoit de rien desdire.

Ainz li recommença a dire;

‘Ha! dame, merci, por pitié!

400

Vostre amors m’a fet sanz faintié

Descovrir les max que je sent.

The Lay of the Reflection

For there is nothing I love as much

As you, may God

Grant me to come in repentance to his Mercy Seat;

360

And this is why I have come here,

For I want you to know this,

And may nobility and compassion

Sway you, as is only right.

364

And whoever goes to church

To pray for souls would also do well to pray for

For those who apply themselves only

To being a faithful lover.’

368

—‘Ah, my lord!’ Upon my soul’,

She replied, ‘what did you just say?

I am quite astounded! How do you come to speak so?’

—‘My lady’, he said, ‘I am speaking the truth.

372

You alone command me,

More than any other lady alive.’

She flushed, the colour rising in her cheeks,

Because he said that he was entirely hers.

376

Then she replied to him with much grace:

‘In truth, my lord, I do not at all believe

That a man as handsome as you

Has no mistress; no one would ever believe such a thing.

380

Your reputation would suffer

And you would lose much respect—

Such a handsome man, with a fine figure and hands

And arms and everything else!

384

You would already know very well

How to trick me with your words,

And make me assume something

I should not, in truth!’

388

As he rode up to the attack she deflected him

With her words, and undid his calculations—

(As the person who first told me this tale

Has given me to understand).

392

He allowed himself to be led on a tight rein,

For there was nothing that could please him more.

Had another treated him with scorn

He would have known well how to gain revenge;

396

But he was so much in her power

That he did not dare contradict her in anything.

So he began once again to talk sweetly to her:

‘Ah! My lady, mercy, for pity’s sake!

400

The love I have for you has, without deceit,

Made me reveal the pangs that I feel.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Molt mal s’i acorde et asent

Vostre parole a vos biax eulz,

404

Qui m’acueillirent orains mielz

Au venir, et plus plesanment.

Or sachiez bien, certainement

Ce fu cortoisie qu’il firent;

408

Car, tres l’eure qu’il primes virent,

Ne virent nul, cë est la some,

Qui si se vousist a vostre home

Tenir, con je veil sanz faintise.

412

Douce dame, par gentillise,

Car le vos plese a essaier:

Retenez moi a chevalier

Et, qant vos plera, a ami!

416

Car ançois un an et demi

M’avrez vos fet si preu et tel,

Et as armes et a l’ostel,

Et tant de bien en mon cors mis

420

Que li nons c’on apele ‘amis’—

Se Diex plet—ne m’iert ja vëez.’

‘Le cuidier que vos i avez’,

Fet ele, ‘vos en fet grant bien!

424

Je n’entendoie au regart rien

Se cortoisie non et sens;

Mes vos l’avez en autre sens

Noté folement; si m’en poise.

428

Se ge ne fusse si cortoise,

Il m’en pesast ja durement;

Mes il avient assez sovent,

Quant aucune dame vaillant

432

Fet aucun chevalier semblant

De cortoisie et d’ennor fere

Lors cuident tot lor autre afere

Cil soupirant avoir trové!

436

Par vos l’ai ge bien esprouvé:

f. 56c

Tout ainsi l’avez entendu.

Miex vos venist avoir tendu

La hors une roiz a colons;

440

que, se li ans estoit si lons

Et li demis con troi entier,

Ne savriez tant esploitier,

Por riens que vos seüssiez fere,

444

Que je fusse aussi debonnere

Envers vos con j’estoie orainz.

Li hom se doit bien garder ainz

The Lay of the Reflection

Your words are very ill-matched

With your beautiful eyes,

404

Which just now welcomed me better

Upon my arrival, and more agreeably.

Now I assure you that they truly

Acted in a courtly manner;

408

For, since the very first time they could see,

They have in truth seen no man

Who so wished to be accepted as your vassal

As I do, in all sincerity.

412

Sweet lady, because of your nobility,

Please put it to the test:

Retain me as your knight

And, when it pleases you, as your lover.

416

For within a year and a half

You will have made me so worthy,

Both in arms and in the castle,

And instilled so much good in me,

420

That the name ‘lover’

―

God willing

―

will never be denied me.’

―

‘The presumption you have shown,

She replied, ‘does you proud!

424

I meant nothing by my look

Except courtesy and good manners;

But you have foolishly interpreted it

In a different way; and this I regret.

428

Were I not such a well-mannered person

It would displease me greatly;

But it happens quite often,

When some noble lady

432

Shows courtliness and honour

Towards a knight,

That suitors like him rush to the conclusion

That they have achieved something quite different!

436

In you I have the proof:

This is exactly how you understood it.

You would have done better to set

A net outside to catch pigeons;

440

For, if the year and a half

Were as long as three whole years,

There is nothing you could do,

No matter how hard you tried,

444

That would lead me to be so generous

Towards you as I was before.

A man should desist from

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Qu’il se vant de chose qu’il n’ait!’

448

Or ne set cil, n’en dit n’en fait,

Qu’il puist fere ne devenir.

‘Au mains n’en puis je pas venir,

Dame’, fet il, ‘que j’ai esté.

452

Pitié et debonereté

A il en vos, je n’en dout mie;

N’onques ne failli a amie

Nus en la fin qui bien amast.

456

Si me sui mis en mer sanz mast

Por noier, aussi con Tristans.

Conment que j’aie esté lonc tens

Sires de ma volenté fere,

460

A cë ai torné mon afere

Que, se je n’ai merci anuit,

Ja mes ne cuit que m’i anuit

Nule, quant g’istrai de cesti.

464

Un tel plet m’a mes cuers basti

Quë en vos s’est mis sanz congié.’

En faisant un petit ditié,

Fet ele: ‘Ainz mes tele n’oï!

468

Or puet bien demorer issi,

Puis que voi que n’est pas a gas.

Encore, par Saint Nicolas,

Cuidoie que vos gabissiez!’

472

‘Certes, dame, se vos fussiez

Une povre garce esgaree,

Bele douce dame anoree,

Ne m’en seüsse je entremetre.’

476

Que qu’il puist dire ne prometre,

f. 56d

A ce ne li puet rien valoir

Qu’il en doie ja joie avoir

De li, si ne set quë il face.

480

Li vermaus li monte en la face

Et les lermes du cuer as eulz,

Si que li blans et li vermeulz

Li moille contreval le vis.

484

Or est il bien la dame avis

Ne li fausse pas de couvent

Ses cuers, ainz set bien que sovent

L’en sovient il, aillors qu’ilue[c].

488

Certes, s’ele plorast avec,

La dame molt fesist grant bien;

Ele ne cuidast ja por rien

Qu’il deüst estre si destroiz.

The Lay of the Reflection

Counting his chickens before they are hatched.’

448

Now he does not know, either in word or deed,

What to do or what will become of him.

‘I cannot be any worse off because of it,

My lady, than I have been.

452

Pity and generosity

Are to be found in you, I have no doubt;

Never has a lover failed to win his lady

In the end, if his love were true.

456

Thus I have put to sea without a mast,

To drown there, just like Tristan.

Although I have for a long time been

In full control of my actions,

460

I have reached such a point

That, unless tonight I meet with some compassion,

I declare that I shall never see another night,

Even if I survive this one.

464

My heart has attacked me so cruelly

That it has lodged itself in you without leave.’

Chiding him,

She said: ‘I have never heard such a thing!

468

It can be left at that

Since I see it is no joking matter.

Still, by Saint Nicholas,

I believed you were having sport with me!’

472

―

‘Truly, my lady, even if you were

A poor vagrant peasant-girl,

Fair, sweet, worthy lady,

I would never bring myself to do such a thing.’

476

Whatever he may say or promise,

It did not aid

His prospects of gaining her favour;

He just did not know what to do.

480

His cheeks became crimson

And tears rose from his heart to his eyes,

Until both white and red

Streaked all down his face.

484

At this point it seemed to the lady that

Her heart was not deceiving her,

Rather she knew quite well that

She often thought of him, not merely there and then.

488

Certainly, if she were to weep with him,

The lady would have done herself much good;

She could never have imagined

That he might be so distressed.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

492

‘Sire’, dist ele, ‘n’est pas droiz

Que je ainme vos në autrë home,

Que j’ai mon seignor molt preudome

Qui molt me sert bien et enneure.’

496

‘Ha! dame’, fet il, ‘a bone eure!

De ce doit il estre molt liez!

[Mes se] gentillece et pitiez

Vos prenoit de moi, et franchise,

500

Ja nus qui d’amors chant ne lise

Ne vos en tenroit a pieur;

Ainz ferïez au siecle honeur

Se vos me volïez amer—

504

A une voie d’outremer

Porrïez l’aumosne aatir!’

‘Or me fetes de vos partir,

Sire!’ fet ele, ‘c’est plus let!

508

Mes cuers ne m’i sueffre ne let

Acorder en nule maniere;

Por ce, s’est oiseuse proiere,

Si vos proi que vos en soufrez!’

512

‘Ha! dame’, fet il, ‘mort m’avez!

Gardez, nu fetes mes por rien,

Mes fetes cortoisie et bien:

[Retenez] moi par un joel,

516

Ou par çainture ou par anel,

f. 58a

Ou vos [recevez] un des miens;

Et je vos creant qu’il n’iert biens

Que chevalier face por dame—

520

Se j’en devoie perdre l’ame,

Si m’ait Dex—que je n’en face.

Vo douz vis et vo clere face

Me puent de pou ostagier;

524

Je sui toz en vostre dangier,

Qanque jë ai force et pooir.’

‘Sire, je ne veil pas avoir’,

Fet la dame, ‘le lox sans preu.

528

Bien sai c’on vos tient a molt preu,

Et s’est pieça chose seüe.

Bien seroie ore deceüe,

Se ge vos metoie en la voie

532

De m’amor, et je n’i avoie

Le cuer: ce seroit vilenie.

Il est une grant cortoisie

D’issir hors du blasme qui puet.’

536

‘Dire tot el vos en estuet,

The Lay of the Reflection

492

‘My lord’, she said, ‘it is not right

That I love you or another man,

For I have my husband who is most worthy

And who serves me well and honours me.’

496

—‘Ah! My lady’, he replied, ‘how I envy him!

That must make him so content!

[But if] you showed kindness and compassion

Towards me, and generosity too,

500

Then no one who sings or reads of love

Would think any the worse of you;

On the contrary, you would be showing the world honour

If you deigned to love me—

504

You could compare the value of your good deed

To that of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land!’

—‘Pray, now allow me to depart,

My lord!’ she said, ‘for shame!

508

My heart does not allow it or

In no wise lets me agree to it;

Therefore it is a useless request,

And I beg you to desist from it!’

512

—‘Ah! My lady’, he replied, ‘You are the very death of me!

Have a care, do not be so dismissive,

But do something that is just and courtly:

[Take me into your service] by giving me a jewel,

516

Or a belt or a ring,

Or accept one of mine;

And I assure you that there will be no service

A knight renders a lady—

520

If I should lose my soul,

God help me—that I would not accomplish.

Your sweet face and soft features

Can retain me for very little;

524

I am entirely at your disposal

Insofar as I have the strength and power.’

—‘My lord, I do not wish to have praise’,

Said the lady, ‘without profit.

528

I am well aware that you are held in high esteem,

And that this has long been the case.

It would be most deceitful of me

If I were to open the way

532

To your love, and if I had no love

In my heart: this would be contemptible.

It is a sign of great courtliness

To avoid reproach whenever possible.’

536

‘You must speak otherwise,

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Dame’, fet il, ‘por moi garir!

Se vos me lessiez morir

Sanz estre amez, ce seroit teche,

540

Se cil biaus vis plains de simplece

Estoit omecide de moi.

Il en covient prendre conroi

Prochain en aucune maniere.

544

Dame de biauté et ma[n]iere

De toz biens: por Deu, gardez i!’

Cil biau mot plesant et poli

Le font en un pensé chaïr

548

D’endroit ce qu’ele velt oïr

Sa requeste, et s’en ot pitié.

El ne le tient mie a faintié

Les soupirs, les lermes qu’il pleure;

552

Ainz dit que force li ceurt seure

D’amors, qui tot ce li fet fere

Ne que jamés si debonnere

Ami n’avra, s’el n’a cestui;

556

Mes [ce] quë onques mes fors hui

f. 58b

N’en parla, li vient a merveille.

Avec ce penser le travaille

Resons, qui d’autre part l’opose

560

Qu’ele se gart de fere chose

Dont ele se repente au loing.

[A] celui qui ert en grant soing

Du penser ou ele ert entree,

564

A molt bele voie mostree

D’une grant cortoisie fere

Amors, qui en tant maint afere

A esté voiseuse et soutille.

568

Entrus quë estoit la gentille

Ou grant penser ou elle estoit,

Cil tret erranment de son doit

Son anel, si l’a mis el sien;

572

Puis fist aprés un greignor sen,

Qui li derompi son penser,

Quë ainz ne li lut apenser

De l’anel qu’ele avoit el doit.

576

A ce qu’ele ne s’en gardoit,

‘Dame’, fel il, ‘a vo congié!

Sachiez que mon pooir et gié

Est toz en vo conmandement.’

580

Cil se part de li erranment,

Et si conpaingnon ambedui.

The Lay of the Reflection

My lady,’ he replied, ‘to save my life!

If you were to let me die unloved,

It would be a grave failing

540

If your fair face full of candour

Were to be the death of me.

We must quickly find

Some solution.

544

Most beautiful lady, skilled

In all that is good: for God’s sake, see what you can do!’

These pleasing and courteous words

Led her to muse

548

Over the fact that she wanted to hear

His petition, and that she felt sorry for him.

She never doubted

His sighs and the tears he shed;

552

Rather, she said to herself, it was a powerful attack

By Love which made him act as he did,

And that she would never find such a noble

Lover as he, if she refused this man;

556

But that he had never before today

Spoken of it filled her with astonishment.

Along with these thoughts reason

Tormented her, which stated the opposing point of view:

560

That she should beware of doing something

She would regret at a later date.

He, who was all consumed

By her reverie,

564

Was shown the ingenious way

To a gesture of great elegance

By the Lady Love, who has time and again in these matters

Revealed herself to be shrewd and subtle.

568

Whilst the noble lady was

Lost in deep thought,

He quickly took his ring from

His finger and slipped it on to hers;

572

Then he did something even more skilful,

Breaking her train of thought

So that she had no time to be aware

Of the ring now on her finger.

576

And while she still noticed nothing,

‘My lady’, he said, ‘with your permission I will leave you!

Be assured that I and all my men

Are entirely at your command.’

580

He swiftly took leave of her,

Along with his two companions.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Nus ne set la reson, fors lui,

Por qoi il s’en depart issis.

584

Il fu soupiranz et pensis;

Venuz est au cheval, si monte.

Fet cele a qui le plus en monte

De lui remetre en sa leëce:

588

‘Iroit s’en il a certes? Qu’ est-ce?

Ce ne fist onques chevaliers!

Je cuidasse c’uns anz entiers

Li fust assez mains lonc d’un jor,

592

Por qu’il fust o moi [a] sejor:

Et il m’a ja si tost lessie!

Ahi! s’or m’i fusse plessie

Vers lui de parole ou de fet!

596

Por les faus semblanz qu’il m’a fet,

f. 58 c

Doit on mes tot le mont meinscroire.

Qui por plorer le vosist croire,

Et por fere ses faus soupirs,

600

Si me consaut li Sains Espirs,

Ja por ce n’i perdist il rien!

Nus ne guilast ore si bien

Ne si bel, cë est or du mains!’

604

Atant envoie vers ses mains

Un regart, si choisi l’anel.

Toz li sans dusqu’au doit [manel]

De son pié li esvanoï;

608

N’onques mes si ne s’esbahi,

Ne n’ot de rien si grant merveille.

La face qu’ele avoit vermeille

L’en devint trestote enpalie.

612

‘Qu’est ce?’ fet ele, ‘Dex aïe!

Je voi ci l’anel qui fu siens!

De tant sui je bien en mon sens

Que je vi orains en son doit

616

Cestui; ce fis mon, orendroit.

Et por qoi l’a il ou mien mis?

Ja n’est il mie mes amis

Et si pens je qu’il le cuide estre.

620

Or est il, par Deu! plus que mestre

De cest art; ne sai qui l’aprist.

Diex! conment est ce qu’il me mist

A ce que je sui si soutise

624

Que je ne m’en sui garde prise

De l’anel, qu’il m’a ou doi mis?

Or dira que c’est mes amis:

The Lay of the Reflection

No one but he knew the reason,

Behind the manner of his exit.

584

He was sighing and filled with melancholy;

He came to his horse and he mounted.

She who mattered the most to him

If he were ever to recover his happiness said:

588

‘Could he really be leaving? What does this mean?

No knight has ever acted thus!

I should have thought that an entire year

Would have seemed to him to pass less quickly than a day,

592

Provided that he remained with me:

And now he has left me so soon!

Oh! How disasterous it would have been, had I been

More accommodating to him in word or deed!

596

What with the pretence he put on for me,

Everyone must be suspected.

If any woman were persuaded to believe him,

On account of his weeping and his false sighing,

600

May the Holy Spirit preserve me,

He would not have been the loser!

No one has ever played such a clever

Or neat trick, that is the least one could say!’

604

Thereupon she glanced at her hands

And noticed the ring.

All her blood drained away

As far as her little toe;

608

She had never been so startled,

Nor had she ever been so astonished by anything.

Her face, which had been crimson,

Became completely pale.

612

‘What is this?’ she said, ‘God help me!

I can see here the ring that was his!

I am sound enough in mind

To know that just now I saw it

616

On his finger; just now, I know I did.

And why has he slipped it on to mine?

He is certainly not my lover,

Yet I think that he believes he is.

620

By God, he is a past master

Of this art; I do not know who taught him.

God! How is it that he has put me

In such a state

624

That I was not sharp enough to notice

The ring that he has put on my finger?

Now he will claim to be my lover:

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Ce fera mon, je n’en dout mie!

628

Dira il voir? sui je s’amie?

Nenil! por noient le diroit!

Ainz li manderé orendroit

Quë il viengne parler a mi,

632

S’il veut que le tiengne a ami;

Si li dirai qu’il le repraingne.

Je ne cuit pas qu’il en mespraigne

Vers moi, s’il ne velt que jou hace.’

636

Atant conmande c’on li face

f. 58d

Venir un vallet tout monté.

Ses puceles l’ont tant hasté

Qu’il li est venuz tout montez.

640

‘Amis’, dist ele, ‘or tost, hurtez!

Poingniez aprés lo chevalier!

Dites li, si conme il a chier

M’amor, qu’il ne voist en avant,

644

Mes viengne arrere maintenant

Parler a moi d’un sien afere.’

‘Dame’, fet il, ‘je quit bien fere

Vostre volenté dusqu’en son!’

648

Atant s’em part a esperon

Aprés lo chevalier poingnant,

Cui Amors aloit destraingnant

De cele qui l’envoie querre.

652

En mains d’une liue de terre

L’a il ataint et retorné.

Sachiez qu’il se tint a buer né

De ce c’on l’avoit remandé

656

Il n’a pas le mes demandé

Por qoi on remandé l’avoit;

Li aneaus qu’ele avoit ou doit

Ert l’achoison du remander.

660

Ce li fist son oirre amender,

Qu’il tarde cele qu’el le voie.

Li escuiers s’est en la voie

Du retor a lui acointiez.

664

Hé! Diex! conme il fust ore liez

Du retorner, se por ce non

Qu’il estoit en gra[n]t soupeçon

Qu’el ne li veille l’anel rendre!

668

Il dit qu’il s’iroit ainçois rendre

A Citiaus, qu’il le represist.

‘Ne cuit pas qu’ele mespresist’

Fet il, ‘envers moi de cele oevre.’

The Lay of the Reflection

He will indeed, I have no doubt at all!

628

Will he be speaking the truth? Am I his friend?

Not at all! He would be speaking in vain!

Indeed, I will summon him at once

To come and speak with me,

632

If he wants me to consider him a friend;

And I will tell him to take it back.

I do not believe he will be offended,

If he does not want me to hate him.’

636

With this she ordered that

A mounted servant be sent to her.

Her handmaidens urged him to make such haste

That he arrived before her already on horseback.

640

‘Friend’, she said, ‘Now quickly, get going!

Spur on after the knight!

Tell him, as he holds my friendship

Dear, not to continue on,

644

But to return at once

To speak with me on a matter concerning him.’

―

‘My lady’, he replied, ‘I shall assuredly carry out

Your wishes to the letter!’

648

With that he galloped away,

Spurring on after the knight,

Whom Love was tormenting with thoughts

Of the very lady who was sending for him.

652

In less than a league

The messenger reached him and turned him back.

You can be sure that he thought himself most fortunate

To have been summoned back;

656

He did not ask the messenger

Why he had been called back;

The ring she was wearing on her finger

Was the reason for the summons.

660

This made him quicken his pace

For she was impatient to see him.

The servant became acquainted with him

On the journey back.

664

O God! How happy he would have been

To return, were it not for the fact that

He was very fearful

That she wanted to give him the ring back!

668

He said to himself that he would rather become a monk

At Cîteaux than take it back.

‘I do not think she would do me the offence’,

He added, ‘of committing such an action.’

Le Lai de l’Ombre

672

La joie du retor li cuevre

Le penser dont il ert en doute.

[Il est venuz a tant de route]

Conme il ot vers la forterece.

676

La dame, qui en grant destrece

Estoit, et sor li desfendant,

f. 59a

Ist de la sale descendant

Pas por pas aval le degré.

680

Porpenseëment et de gré

Vient en la cort por li deduire;

L’anelet voit en son doit luire

Qu’ele veut rendre au chevalier.

684

‘S’il m’en fet ja point de dangier’,

Fet ele, ‘et il nu velt reprandre,

Por ce ne l’iré je pas prandre

Par ses biaus cheveus. Se je puis,

688

Ainz le menré desor ce puis;

Si parlerai illec a lui.

S’il nu velt prandre sanz anui,

Je rompré molt tost la parole.

692

Conment? je n’iere pas si fole

Que je le giete enmi ia voie!

Ou dont? en tel leu c’on nel voie:

Cë ert ou puis, n’est pas mençonge!

696

Ja puis n’en ert ne que de songe

Chose dite qui me messiece.

Dont n’ai gé ore esté grant piece

O mon seignor sanz vilanie?

700

Se cist, par sa chevalerie

Et par soupirer devant mi,

Veut ja que ju tiengne a ami

A cest premerain parlement,

704

Il avroit ançois durement

Deservi, se ju devoie estre!’

Atant est cil entrez en l’estre

Qui de tot ce ne se prent garde.

708

Il voit cele que molt esgarde

Volentiers aler par la cort;

Il descent lues et vers li cort,

Si con chevaliers fet vers dame.

712

Si dui conpaignon ne nule ame

De l’ostel ne li font anui.

Fet il: ‘Bone aventure ait hui

Ma dame, a qui je sui et iere!’

716

Ne l’a or en autre maniere

The Lay of the Reflection

672

His joy at returning hid

The thoughts which made him apprehensive.

[He returned with all his retinue]

To the castle.

676

The lady, who was in much distress,

And in conflict with herself,

Left her chamber, descending

The stairway step-by-step.

680

Deliberately and by choice

She came into the courtyard to pass the time;

She caught sight on her finger of the glimmering ring

That she intended to return to the knight.

684

‘If ever he makes any objection to it’,

She said, ‘and refuses to take it back,

I will not slap him in his face!

If I am able,

688

I will bring him over instead to this well;

Then I will talk to him there.

If he is not prepared to take it back without any fuss,

I will break off the conversation immediately.

692

How? I will not be so foolish

As to throw it down on the path!

Where then? Somewhere no one can see it:

Of course! Into the well, and that is no lie!

696

No-one will ever have occasion to say or even to imagine

Anything to my discredit about it.

Have I not lived faithfully

With my husband for a long time?

700

If simply on the strength of his chivalry

And sighing in my presence,

He wishes me to consider him as my lover

At this first conversation,

704

He would have deserved nothing but shame

If I had allowed myself to be his!’

At that moment he arrived at the lady’s castle,

But knew nothing about her thoughts.

708

He saw her

―

and most willingly his eyes followed her

As she walked in the courtyard;

He instantly dismounted and ran towards her,

As befits any knight approaching his lady.

712

Neither his two companions nor anyone

From the castle stood in his way.

He said: ‘May my lady, to whom I belong,

Enjoy good fortune today!’

716

With these words, he could not exactly be accused

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Ferue du poing lez l’oïe;

f. 59b

Ele a hui mainte chose oïe

Qui molt li touche pres du cuer.

720

‘Sire’, fet ele, ‘alons la fuer

Sëoir sor ce puis por deduire.’

Or n’est il riens qui li puist nuire,

Ce dit, puis qu’el l’aqueut si bel!

724

Or cuide bien par son anel

Avoir et s’amor et sa grace.

Il n’est encor preu en la trace

Por qoi il se doive esjoïr;

728

Ainz qu’il peüst lez li seïr,

Ot il chose qui li desplet.

‘Sire’, fet ele, ‘s’il vos plet,

Dites moi, la vostre merci:

732

Cest vostre anel que je tien ci -

Por qoi le me donnastes ore?’

‘Douce dame,’ fet il, ‘encore

Quant m’en irai si l’avrez vos;

736

Si vos dirai, ce sachiez vos—

Si nel tenez pas a faintié—

De tant vaut il miez la moitié

Qu’il a en vostre doit esté.

740

S’il vos plesoit, en cest esté

Le savroient mi anemi,

Se vos m’avïez a ami

Reçut, et je vos a amie.’

744

‘En non Dieu! ce n’i a il mie’

Fet ele, ‘ançois i a tot el:

Ja puis n’istré de cest ostel

Si m’aït Dex, se morte non,

748

Que vos avroiz ne cri ne non

De m’amor, por rien que je voie.

Vos n’en estes pas en la voie,

Ainz en estes molt forvoiez.

752

Tenez! je veil que vos l’aiez,

Vostre anel! que je n’en voil mie.

Ja mar me tenrez a amie,

Por garde que j’en aie fete!’

756

Or se despoire, or se deshete

Cil qui cuidoit avoir tot pris.

f. 59c

Fet il: ‘Mains en vaudroit mes pris,

Se c’ert a certes que je voi;

760

Onques mes nule joie n’oi

Qui si tost me tornast a ire.’

The Lay of the Reflection

Of brutalising her

―

far from it!;

Today she had heard many things

That touched her close to the heart.

720

‘My lord’, she said, ‘let us go outside

And take our ease, sitting together beside the well.’

Now there was nothing to hinder him,

He said to himself, since she welcomed him so warmly!

724

He was now confident that, thanks to his ring,

He would earn her love and favour.

However, he had not yet done enough

To allow him to rejoice;

728

Before he could sit down beside her

He heard something which displeased him.

‘My lord’, she said, ‘if you please,

Tell me, for pity’s sake:

732

This ring of yours that I hold here

―

Why did you give it to me just now?’

―

‘Sweet lady’, he replied, ‘you will

Still have it when I leave;

736

Indeed I will tell you, be assured

―

And do not think I am deceiving you

―

That its value has increased by half again

Because it has been on your finger.

740

Were it to please you, this summer

My tournament opponents would be made aware

That you had accepted me as your lover

And I had won your favour.’

744

―

‘In God’s name! There is no question of that,’

She said, ‘rather, the situation is quite different:

I will never leave this house again,

So help me God, unless as a lifeless corpse,

748

If you were ever to win a reputation or renown

As my lover, for any reason as far as I can see.

You are not on the right track,

In fact you have gone badly astray.

752

Here! I want you to have it,

Your ring! I want none of it.

Woe betide you if you consider me your mistress

Just because I had it in my keeping!’

756

Now he despaired and grieved,

He who thought it was all won.

He said: ‘My reputation would be worth much less

If what I see were to be true;

760

Never did any joy I knew

So quickly turn into anguish.’

Le Lai de l’Ombre

‘Conment donques’, fet ele, ‘sire,

Avez i vos anui ne honte

764

De moi, a qui noient ne monte

Vers vos d’amor ne de lingnage?

Je ne faz mie grant outrage

Se ge vos voil vostre anel rendre.

768

Il n’i a, voir, fors du reprandre,

Car je n’ai droit ou retenir,

Puis que je ne vos voil tenir

A ami, car je mesferoie.’

772

‘Diex!’ fet il, ‘se ge me feroie

D’un coutel tres par mi la cuisse,

Ne me feroie tele angoisse

Conme ces paroles me font!

776

Mal fel qui destruit et confont

Ce dont on puet estre au deseure.

Trop me cort force d’Amor seure

Por vos, et met en grant destrece;

780

Ne ja mar [baëroit] a ce

Nule du mont que jel repreingne.

Ja puis, a foi, Dex ne me praigne

A bone fin, que jel prendrai!

784

Ainz l’avrez, e si vos lerai

Mon cuer avec, en vo servise;

Qu’il n’est riens qui a vo devise

Vos serve si bien ne si bel,

788

Conme entre mon cuer et l’anel.’

Fet ele: ‘N’en parlez vos onques,

Car vos en perdrïez adonques

M’acointance et ma seürté,

792

Se vos, outre ma volenté,

Me volez fere a vos m’esprendre.

Il le vos covient a reprendre!’

‘[Non] fet!’ ‘[Si] fet! la n’a que dire:

796

Ou vos estes molt plus que sire,

Se vostre anuis a ce m’esforce

f. 59d

Que vos le me voilliez par force,

Maugré mien, fere retenir.

800

Tenez! ja mes nu quier tenir.’

‘Si ferez.’ ‘Je non ferai, voir!

Volez le me vos fere avoir

A force?’ ‘Nenil, voir, amie.

804

Bien sai ce pooir n’ai ge mie:

Ce poise moi, si m’aït Diex!

Ja puis vilenie ne dues

The Lay of the Reflection

—‘My lord, how can it possibly be’, she replied,

‘That have you received any pain or shame

764

From me, who has no interest in you at all,

Neither through love nor kinship?

I am committing no great outrage

If I wish to return your ring to you.

768

In truth, there is nothing you can do but take it back,

For I have no right to keep it,

since I do not want you to be

My lover; in fact it would be to act ill.’

772

—‘God!’ he replied, ‘if I were to thrust

A knife into my thigh,

It would not inflict such pain

As do these words!

776

It is wrong to destroy and crush

Something which is in your control.

The power of love assails me greatly

Because of you, and has me in much distress;

780

No other woman in the world would

So do me such ill as to insist I take back the ring.

Upon my faith, may the Lord not receive me in heaven

If ever I take it back!

784

Rather you will have it, and also I will leave

My heart with it, in your service;

For there is nothing which, according to your desire,

Will serve you as well or as completely,

788

As both my heart and my ring.’

She replied: ‘Never again speak of this,

Since you would instantly lose

My friendship and my trust,

792

If you, against my wishes,

Insist on making me angry with you.

It is vital that you take it back.’

—‘[No] it is not.’—‘[Yes] it is! There is nothing more to say:

796

You are indeed far too domineering,

Pestering me and pushing me to the point

Of insisting by brute force

That I keep it, against all my wishes.

800

Here! I never wish to hold it again.’

—‘But you will.’—‘Indeed I will not!

Do you want to impose it on me

By force?’—‘Indeed not, sweet friend,

804

I understand that I do not have the power:

I regret it, God help me!

Never more will disgrace or grief

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Ne m’avenroit, c’est ma creance,

808

Se vos en un poi d’esperance

Me metïez, por conforter.’

‘Ausi bien porrïez hurter

A ce perron le vostre chief,

812

[Que vous en venissiez a chief!]

Si lou que vos le repreingniez.’

‘Il m’est vis que vos m’apreingniez’,

Fet il, ‘‘a chanter de Renart.

816

Je me leroie ainz une hart

Lacier ou col, que jel preïsse!

Ne sai que je vos en feïsse

Lonc plet, qu’au reprandre n’a rien.’

820

‘Sire’, fet ele, ‘or voi je bien

Que ce vos fet fere enresdie,

[Qant] parole que je [vos] die

Ne vos puet au prandre mener.

824

Or vos veil jë aconjurer,

Par la grant foi que me devez,

Et proier que le reprenez,

Si chier con vos avez m’amor.’

828

Or n’i a il, en Dieu amor,

Tor c’un seul: qu’il ne li coviengne

A reprendrë, ou qu’el nu tiengne

A desloial ou a jengleus.

832

‘Diex!’ fet il, ‘li qex de ces geus

Partiz m’est or li mains mauvais?

Or sai je bien, se ge li lais,

Ele dira je ne l’aim mie.

836

Qui tant estraint croste que mie

En saut, ce par est trop estraint!

Cis sairemenz m’a si ataint

f. 61a

Que li lessiers ne m’i est preuz.

840

Ançois cuit je que li miens preuz

Et m’onors i soit au reprandre,

Se je ne voil de molt mesprandre

Vers ma gentil dame anoree,

844

Qui s’amor m’a aconjuree

Et la grant foi que je li doi.

Quant je l’avrai mis en mon doi,

Si ert il siens, la ou il iert.

848

Se ge faz ce qu’ele me quiert,

Je n’i puis avoir s’enor non.

N’est pas amis qui jusqu’en son

Ne fet au voloir de s’amie;

The Lay of the Reflection

Engulf me, it is my belief,

808

If you give me

A little hope, to encourage me.

—‘You might as well bang

Your head against this mounting block,

812

[Before ever your wish comes true!]

So I advise you to take it back.’

—It seems to me that you are insisting’,

He replied, ‘that I change the subject.

816

I would rather feel the hangman’s noose

Around my neck than take back the ring!

I do not know what more there is to say;

There is simply no question of my taking it back.’

820

—‘Sir’, she said, ‘I now understand

That obstinacy is making you do this,

[When] nothing I can say [to you]

Can lead you to accept it.

824

Now I wish to beseech you,

By the great faith that you owe me,

And beg you to take it back,

As your love for me is so dear to your heart.’

828

Now, by the love of God,

There was only one way out: he must agree

To take it back from her, or she will take him

To be a faithless prattler.

832

‘God!’ he said, ‘which one of these

Two alternatives is the less harmful to me?

It is quite clear, if I leave it for her,

She will say that I do not love her at all.

836

If one so grasps the crust that the crumb

Is squeezed out, the grasping is too strong!

This declaration has put me in such a situation

Where leaving the ring for her is not in my interest.

840

On the contrary, I think that my profit

And honour may be served by taking it back,

If I do not wish to behave very badly

Towards my honoured, noble lady,

844

Who has so beseeched me by my love for her,

And by the great faith that I owe her.

If I put it back on my finger,

It will remain hers, wherever it is.

848

If I do as she asks of me,

I will gain nothing but honour.

He is not a true lover who does not

Do his lady’s bidding to the utmost;

Le Lai de l’Ombre

852

Et sachiez que cil n’ainme mie

Qui riens qu’il puisse en lait a fere.

Si doi atorner mon afere

Du tot en son conmandement,

856

Car il n’en doit estre autrement

S’a la seue volenté non.’

Il na noma pas par son non

Quant il dit: ‘Dame, je[l] prendrai

860

Par un covent: que j’en ferai,

Aprés la vostre volenté

La moie, encor ait il esté

En ce doit que je voi si bel.’

864

‘Et je vos rent donques l’anel,

Par covent que vos l’en faciez.’

N’est envielliz në esfaciez

Li sens du vaillant chevalier.

868

Tot [esprendanz] de cuer entier

Le prist tot porpenseëment,

Si le resgarde doucement.

Au reprandre dit: ‘Grant merciz!

872

Por ce n’est pas li ors nerciz,’

Fet il, ‘s’il vient de vo biau doit.’

Cele s’en sozrist, qui cuidoit

Qu’il le deüst remetre el sien;

876

Mes il fist un plus greingnor sen,

Dont molt grant joie li vint puis.

Il s’est acoutez seur le puis,

f. 61b

Qui n’estoit que toise et demie

880

Parfonz, si ne meschoisi mie

De l’eaue, qui ert bele et clere,

L’ombre de la dame qui ere

La riens ou mont que plus amot.

884

‘Sachiez’, fet il, ‘tot a un mot,

Que je n’en reporterai mie;

Ainz l’avra ja, ma douce amie,

La riens que j’aing miex enprés vos.’

888

‘Diex!’ fet ele, ‘ci n’a que nos!

Ou l’avrez vos si tost trovee?’

‘En non Deu, ja vos ert mostree

La preuz, la gentil qui l’avra.’

892

‘Ou est?’ ‘En non Deu, vez la la,

Vostre bel ombre qui l’atent!’

L’anel a pris, et si l’i tent.

‘Tenez!’ fet il, ‘ma douce amie:

896

Puis que ma dame n’en velt mie,

The Lay of the Reflection

852

And know this, that a man who desists from doing

A thing of which he is capable does not love at all.

And so everything I decide to do

Must be governed by her command,

856

Since there is nothing more for it

Than to do her bidding.’

He did not call her by her name

When he said: ‘Lady, I will take [it]

860

On one condition: that,

After having done your bidding,

I may do with it as I will, for all that it has been

On that finger which is so beautiful to my eyes.’

864

—‘And so I return the ring to you

On the understanding that you have set out.

The brave knight’s wits

Had not grown old or faded.

868

His whole heart [enflamed] with passion,

He took it deliberately,

And looked at it fondly.

As he took it back, he said: ‘Thanks be,

872

That the gold has not turned black’,

He went on, ‘since it has come from your lovely finger.’

She smiled at this, believing

That he would put it back on his own;

876

But he did something much more meaningful,

From which he would later gain much joy.

He leaned against the well,

Which was only a six-foot or more

880

Deep, and he did not fail

To recognise in the clear, still water

The reflection of the lady whom

He loved more than anything in the world.

884

‘Rest assured’, he said, ‘for once and for all,

That I will not take it away;

Rather, my sweet lady will have it at once,

The person I love best after you.’

888

—‘God!’ she said, ‘there is just us here!

Where have you found her so quickly?’

―

‘In God’s name, the noble, worthy lady

Will be shown to you immediately.’

892

—‘Where is she?’—‘By heavens, see her there,

Your lovely reflection which is waiting for it!’

He took the ring, and held it out to her.

‘Here!’ he said, ‘my sweet lover:

896

Since my lady wants nothing of it,

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Vos le prandrez bien sanz mellee.’

L’eaue s’est un petit troblee

Au chëoir que li aneaus fist;

900

Et quant li ombres se desfist,

‘Vez, dame!’ fet il, ‘or l’a pris.

Molt en est amendez mes pris,

Quant ce, qui de vos est, l’enporte.

904

Car n’eüst or ne huis ne porte

La jus! si s’en venroit par ci,

Por dire la seue merci

De l’oneur que fete m’en a.’

908

Hé! Diex! si buer i asena

A cele cortoisie fere!

C’onques mes riens de son afere

Ne fu a la dame plesans.

912

Toz reverdis et esprenans,

Li a geté ses eulz [es] siens;

Molt vient a honme de grant sens

Qui fet cortoisie au besoing.

916

‘Orainz ert de m’amor si loing

Cil hon, et or en est si prés!

Onques mes devant në aprés

f. 61c

N’avint, puis que Adanz mort la pome,

920

Si bele cortoisie a home!

Ne sai conment il l’en membra

Quant por m’amor a mon ombre a

Jeté son anel enz ou puis.

924

Or ne li doi je, ne ne puis,

Plus vëer lo don de m’amor!

Ne sai por quoi je li demor,

C’onques hom si bien ne si bel

928

Ne conquist Amor par anel,

Ne miex ne doit avoir amie.’

Sachiez qu’ele nu bleça mie

Quant ele dit: ‘Biaus douz amis,

932

Tot vostre cuer ont el mien mis

Cil doz mot et cil plesant fet,

Et li dons que vos avez fet

A mon ombre, en l’onor de moi.

936

Or metez le mien en vo doi:

Tenez! je vos doing conme amie.

Je cuit que vos ne l’avrez mie

Mains du vostre, encor soit il pire.’

940

‘De l’onor’, fet il, ‘de l’Empire

Ne me fesist on pas si lié!’

The Lay of the Reflection

You will certainly take it without argument.’

The water rippled gently

As the ring fell into it;

900

And when the reflection broke up,

‘Look, my lady’, he said, ‘now she has accepted it.

My reputation is greatly enhanced,

Since she, who emanates from you, has taken it.

904

Would that there were a door or gate

Down there! Then she could come here,

So that I might thank her

For the honour that she has done me.’

908

Oh! God! How fortunate that he embarked upon

Such a courtly gesture!

Never had anything he had done

Been so pleasing to the lady.

912

Full of emotion and passion,

She turned her eyes [to] his;

Great reward comes to the man wise enough

To be courtly when needs must.

916

‘Just now this man was so far

From my love, and now he is so near to it!

Never, either before or after,

Since Adam bit into the apple,

920

Has a man made such an exquisite, courtly gesture!

I cannot imagine how he thought of it,

When for love of my reflection he threw

His ring into the well.

924

Nor must I, or can I

Any longer refuse him the gift of my love!

I do not know why I am keeping him waiting,

For never did a man conquer love

928

So well or so expertly with a ring,

Nor more deserve to have a lover.’

Rest assured that she did not offend him at all,

When she said: ‘Fair, sweet friend,

932

Now your heart has joined with mine

By these fine words and pleasing ways,

And by the gift that you have made

To my reflection, in my honour.

936

Now slip my ring on your finger:

Here! I give it to you as your love.

I believe that you will not value it

Less than yours, even if it is poorer.’

940

‘Being lord of the Empire’, he said,

‘Would not make me as happy!’

Le Lai de l’Ombre

Molt se sont andui envoisié

Sor le puis de tant conme il peurent.

944

Des besiers dont il s’entrepeurent

Va chascun la douçor au cuer.

Lor bel oel n’en gietent pas puer

La parole, cë est du mains!

948

De tel geu conme on fet des mains

Estoit ele dame et il mestre,

Fors de celui qui ne puet estre,

Dont il lor covendra molt bien!

952

N’i covient mes penser [de] rien

Jehan Renart a lor afere!

S’il a nule autre chose a fere

Bien puet son penser metre aillors;

956

Que puis que lor sens et Amors

Ont mis andeus lor cuers ensenble,

Du geu qui remaint, ce me senble,

f. 61d

Venront il bien a chief andui;

960

Et or s’en taise a tant meshui!

Ici fenist li Lais de l’Ombre:

Contez, vos qui savez de nombre!

The Lay of the Reflection

They both took as much pleasure

As they could, sitting there beside the well.

944

They regaled each other with kisses

Whose sweetness penetrated them both to the heart.

Their handsome eyes did not prevent

Speech, to say the very least!

948

Both he and she felt free

To make such sport with their hands,

Except for that sport for which the occasion did not allow,

And that situation will soon be put right!

952

There is no need for Jehan Renart

To think any further about their business!

If he has other things in mind,

He would do well to direct his attention elsewhere!

956

For since their own wit and the power of Love

Have brought their hearts together,

The sport which remains, it seems to me,

They will both cope with quite well;

960

And from now on there should be silence on the matter!

Here ends the Lay of the Reflection:

Recount it all, you who know how to count!

Rejected Readings

v. 5

garçon

v. 8

MS repeats this line in error

v. 27

avoir ne amis

(see Notes)

v. 44

ce qui

v. 48

qui a port de bien dire arrive

(see Notes)

v. 75

durement prist

(see Notes)

v. 83

plus que ne di

; reading from A

v. 91

Quil

v. 102

qu’en

: reading from A

v. 157

ceus qui d’Amors erent souspris

v. 164

einsi

v. 197

Two folios have here been transposed in the binding and have been

numbered 56 and 57 in error.

v. 246

MS omits

poi

; reading from A

v. 263

ne...ne

(see Notes)

v. 292

ere

(hypermetric); A

s’en cort

v. 305

Nature en li. A son encontre

(see Notes)

v. 307

de venir

(bad rhyme); reading from A

v. 308

issir

v. 311

; reading from A

v. 346

li ont promis

(see Notes)

v. 353

MS omits

autres

; reading from A

v. 357

For foliation, see note to v. 197

v. 466

Un petit en fesant ris, ‘Gié’

(see Notes)

v. 487

ilues

v. 498

MS E:

gentillece

: reading from MS BNF, fr. 1553

v. 513

dites

v. 515

recevez

; reading from A

v. 517

retenez

; reading from A

v. 547

Chaoir

v. 554

mamiere

v. 556

MS omits

; reading from A

v. 562

v. 592

v. 606

mãinel

; reading from A (see Notes)

v. 666

grat

v. 674

MS omits; reading from A

Rejected Readings

v. 686

li liré

v. 780

baerez

; reading from A

v. 795

si fet non fet

; reading from A

v. 812

MS omits; reading from A

v. 815

Bernart

(see Notes)

v. 822

que por p. que je die;

reading from A

v. 839

Two folios have here been transposed in the binding and have been

numbered 60 and 61 in error.

v. 859

je p

.; reading from A

v. 868

en prenant

; reading from A

v. 890

par mon chief

(see Notes)

v. 913

; reading from A

v. 938

je cuit vos ne l’amerez mie

v. 952

; reading from A

Notes on the Text

In these notes the following abbreviations are used:

Esc

. =

Le Roman de l’Escoufle

Gui

. =

Guillaume de Dole

Gal

. =

Galeran de Bretagne

For the manuscripts represented by the various

sigla,

see Introduction. The mention

‘Orr’ or ‘Bédier’ refers, unless otherwise stated, to the editions of the

Lai de l’Ombre

of these editors respectively.

Oiseus

: the other MSS have

garcon

, whose meaning seems to have developed ‘boy’ >

‘apprentice’ > ‘novice’ > ‘bungler’. Our MS’s

oiseus

is possibly a slip brought about by

the word’s presence in v. 3, although it makes sense.

S’aoeuvre

is from the verb

s’aovrir

, ‘to display itself, reveal itself’, not from

s’aovrer

‘s’employer’, ‘to be used’, as Bédier thought.

Loit

All the other MSS have

doit

, but

loit

licet

) makes good sense here.

16-19

This graphic way of expressing impossibility is characteristic of Jehan Renart’s

taste for the down-to-earth image.

Gal

., vv. 2979-83,

les bons

is synonymous with

haulx homes, roys et contes.

22-24

Allusion to the incident described in

Esc

., vv. 6770ff.

Art

is preterite tense for

arst

; cf

the rhyme

arst: hart

Esc

., vv. 7195-76.

Cis contes

, i.e.

Le Roman de l’Escoufle

. Guillaume, the hero of the tale, although

des

bons

, i.e. ‘of high degree’, and enjoying the Emperor’s favour, suffers much until good

fortune (

eür

) befalls him once more.

Orr adopts the reading of ABCFG:

eür que avoir në amis,

on the

ground that

parenz

në amis

, while appropriate to the story of the

Escoufle

, does not fit the context of the

Lai de l’Ombre

;

this seems an insufficient reason to emend a reading which makes

acceptable sense.

Notes on the Text

For the intransitive use of

amesurer

, ‘to

return to moderation’, cf

Le Roman de la

Rose,

vv. 3329-30:

Lors ne pot plus Dangier durer / Ains le covint amesurer

(quoted by A.

Tobler and E. Lommatzsch,

Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch

(Berlin: Weidmann, 1925-).

Orr suggests that it would be preferable to read

‘if’ rather than

, which could

be due to a misguided attempt on the part of a scribe to remove a supposed
Picardism; cf

Old Picard feminines

, etc.

‘If bad luck leaves him’, i.e. ‘ceases to pursue him’.

Desploier

is very close in meaning to

s’aovrir

(v. 9). The other MSS have

emploier

39-41

The

Eslit

to whom these lines refer may well be Miles de Châtillon-Nanteuil, to

whom Jehan Renart dedicated his

Guillaume de Dole

. Miles was bishop-elect to the

diocese of Beauvais from 1217 until his consecration by the Pope in 1222 on his
return from the Holy Land. What follows implies that Miles commissioned the

Lai de

l’Ombre

before he became effectively bishop in 1222. However, see my comments in

the Introduction.

41-44

We have here an example of a series of ‘grammatical rhymes’. Cf. also vv. 623-

62. The use of

ce que

as a nominative is not uncommon: see Kristoffer Nyrop,

Grammaire historique de la langue française

(Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1908),

vol. 5, p. 277.

The

d(e)

links the line with the

volenté

of v. 43.

There is a pun on the two meanings of

rime

: ‘rhymes’ and ‘sets a course’. Cf.

the

pun on

conter

which ends the poem.

In the other MSS this line is replaced, with insignificant variants, by:

Qui a port de

bien dire arrive.

Orr preserves both our MS’s reading and the above line, which he

prints as v. 48a. Even if we ignore the problem of the succession of three identical
rhymes, if seems unnecessary, for the sense of the passage, to deviate from either of
the readings preserved by the MSS. The passage makes good sense as it stands in our
MS: ‘They say, “Steer well, rhyme well”. He who comes ashore from the high seas is
a fool if he upbraids the sea; for this he wins the greater esteem of kings and counts
(i.e. the discerning)’.

54-55

These lines are grammatically and geographically ambiguous. If the words

Loheraingne et d’Alemaingne

are the complement of

marche

, the latter would indicate a

part of France bordering on Lorraine and Germany, both imperial territories. This is
grammatically awkward and geographically vague. If the expression

de Loheraingne et

d’Alemaingne

depends on

Empiere

, the grammar is clearer but the geography even

vaguer, and the place indicated could be anywhere to the East or West of the frontier
between France and the Empire, from Flanders to Provence. This vagueness would

Le Lai de l’Ombre

appear to be deliberate; see note to vv. 62-63.

Orr suggests that

Perchois

is synonymous with Le Perche and that this line

therefore refers to the whole breadth of the then royal domain. There is no evidence,
however, that Le Perche was ever called the

Perchois

. Lecoy, who reproduces MS A,

reads

Partois

, and argues convincingly that the name refers to the area around

Perthes, in the modern Haute-Marne (near Châlons), see Lecoy’s edition, p. xv and
note to v. 57.

Le Perthois

is mentioned in

Guillaume de Dole

in what is perhaps a veiled

reference to the

Lai de l’Ombre

En cele Champaigne hanta / uns chevaliers […] / Si amoit

une dame en France / En cele marche de Perthois

(ed. by Lecoy

vv. 661-66).

Gauvain, one of the heroes of the romances of the Round Table, was noted for

many outstanding qualities of character.

62-63

Bédier underlines the peculiarity of the procedure whereby an author disclaims

all knowledge of his hero’s name and yet reveals, in minute detail, his most intimate
feelings. He suggests that this deliberate vagueness as to his hero’s identity, taken
with the imprecision of his geographical origins (see note to vv. 54-55),

is an

indication that Jehan Renart was mocking one of the conventions of narrative
literature. In MS A v. 62 reads:

mes nus n’oi onques son nom

, where the mockery of the

convention is even more marked.

For this meaning of

demainne

, see Alan Hindley, Frederick W. Langley, and Brian J.

Levy,

Old French-English Dictionary

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

S’avoir

‘to conduct oneself, to behave’: cf.

Esc

., vv. 9022-24:

[…] qui(l) n’est riens

nesune / Tant sage pour gent decevoir / Com amors, qui s’i set avoir.

In rectifying the omission, the form

, commonly found in our MS, is preferred

to MS A’s

nel

82-83

There is a passage in Rutebeuf which curiously resembles these lines:

Douz et cortois et debonere

Le trovoit l’en en son ostel;

Mes aus armes autre que tel

Le trovast li siens anemis,

Puis qu’il s’i fust mesbez et mis.
(

La Complainte de Geoffroi de Sergines,

vv. 68-72,

Œuvres complètes de Rutebeuf,

ed.

by E. Faral and J. Bastin, 2 vols (Paris: Picard, 1969), I, pp. 415-16)

90-91

Quite possibly a popular expression (cf

vv. 94-95

Since Monday sees the

beginning of the week’s work, the chevalier’s wish that there were two Mondays in
the week is indicative of his energy. It must be remembered, too, that tourneys
commonly began on Mondays: see L.-A. Vigneras, ‘Monday as a date for medieval
tournaments’,

Modern Language Notes

, 48 (1933), 80-82.

Notes on the Text

Largesce

was thought to be one of the greatest social virtues of the medieval

nobleman: cf

Marie de France’s evocation of Lanval’s generosity:

N’ot en la vile chevalier

Ki de surjur ait grant mestier,

Quë il ne face a lui venir

E richement e bien servir.

Lanval dounout les riches duns,

Lanval aquitout les prisuns,

Lanval vesteit les jugleurs,

Lanval feseit les granz honours.
(Marie de France,

Lais,

ed. by A. Ewert (Oxford: Blackwell, 1944),

Lanval,

vv.

205-12)

102

Subjunctive

leüst

: one would expect here an indicative dependent on

quant

Leüst

is an example of the subjunctive by attraction: see L. Foulet,

Petite syntaxe de l’ancien

français

(Paris: Champion, 1958), para. 308.

105

Tristan, the lover of Iseut, was famous for his skill at chess and other games, as

well as for his valour, his knowledge of hunting and his talents as harpist and singer.

124-25

This refers to an episode in the legend of Tristan who, exiled by his uncle,

King Mark, because of his love for his Queen, Iseut, pretended to be a madman in
order to be with his beloved again. The shaven head was one of the characteristics of
the madman in the Middle Ages. See, for example, Jean-Marie Fritz,

Le Discours du fou

au Moyen âge

(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1992), and Muriel Laharie,

Folie au moyen âge (XI-XIIIe siècles)

(Paris: Le Léopard d’Or, 1991). In the

Folie Tristan de

Berne

, Tristan is actually driven mad by love for Iseut before he thinks of acting the

madman in order to be near her again. See also the

Folie Tristan d’Oxford

(

Le Roman de

Tristan par Thomas, suivi de La Folie Tristan de Berne et de La Folie Tristan d'Oxford,

trans.

by Emmanuèle Baumgartner and Ian Short with text edited by Félix Lecoy (Paris:
Champion, 2003).

134-35

There is a declension ‘mistake’ here:

parti son cuer

for

partis ses cuers

. Some MSS

‘correct’ this, thereby interfering with the rhyme. It has been suggested by A. Tobler
(

Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen

, 85 (1980), p. 352) that,

despite the evidence of the MSS, a better reading would be:

A maintes en avoit parti/son

cuer

155

Amer seul

, ‘to love without one’s love being returned’.

156

The object of

desaamé

is either the

celes

of v. 155 or ‘those’ in general. The

elliptical turn of phrase is typical of Jehan Renart. The reading of MS 837 is perhaps
more in keeping with Jehan Renart’s usual versification.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

176-77

. Esc

., vv. 3370-71:

Cele li fait des siens .i. las / Entor le col, puis si le baise.

181

MSS C and D read:

en ce que

(i.e. ‘while’). Orr suggests that the true version of the

lines should be

en ce que plus m’i delitast

. He rejects the possible reading

en ce qu’i plus me

delitast

on the grounds that the word-order would be unusual. The reading need not,

however, be rejected for that reason alone.

184

This recalls two examples found in Joseph Morawski’s list of Old French

proverbs,

Proverbes français antérieurs au XVe siècle

, CFMA 47 (Paris: Champion, 1925):

Len ne puet rien prendre ou rien n’a

(# 1522);

Qui en puet avoir si en preigne

(# 1916).

187-93

Modern usage would not require the

que

of vv. 191 and 193, but the

redundant repetition of

que

after a parenthesis is not unusual in Old French.

200

Another proverb:

Il n’y a tel comme soy

(Morawski

# 945).

202-03

Cf. Morawski, # 1096:

Li mestiers duit l’omme

206-07

The notion of the imprisonment of the heart is a commonplace of courtly

literature, in particular of the courtly lyric.

222

Il dit

, ‘it says’, a formula used to pick up the thread of the narrative; cf.

v. 53.

237-38

The rhyme

dame: roiaume

suggests that Jehan Renart originally wrote

roiame

which is evidence of the Picard element in his language, since in Old Picard the

was

often effaced in the group

+ nasal: cf

the rhymes

palme: basme: pasme

quoted by

Charles Gossen in

Grammaire de l’ancien Picard

(Paris: Klincksieck, 1970), p. 94.

243

Possibly an allusion to Miles de Châtillon-Nanteuil, the

eslit

of v. 41, who was

imprisoned in Cairo by the Saracens after the Crusaders’ defeat at Damietta on 29
August 1219: see Rita Lejeune-Dehousse,

L’Œuvre de Jean Renart: contribution à l’étude

du genre romanesque au Moyen Age

(Liège and Paris: Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres,

1935), pp. 247ff. In any case, imprisonment by the Turks, as a symbol of misfortune,
is frequently mentioned in medieval literature.

244

Orr suggests that

a ere

is a variant of the expression

en oirre

, ‘forthwith’. He

mentions a perhaps more attractive interpretation by Roques (

Mélanges de philologie

offerts à Jean-Jacques Salverda de Grave à l’occasion de sa soixante-dixième année par ses amis et
ses élèves

(Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1933), p. 271; and

Romania

59 (1933), 427-28), that

a ere

is the same as the interjection

aoirre

, which is found in

Aucassin et Nicolette

, X, 63

and a few other texts. ‘L’exclamation

aere

’, suggests Roques, ‘me paraît avoir ici la

valeur d’une exhortation au calme “He! lá!; Allons, allons!”’ This would be in keeping
with v. 245. If this suggestion were to be accepted, our lines would read:

Il dit en

sozriant, ‘Aere! / Or seignors, or tot belement!...

’.

255

Sire

, both ‘lord’ and ‘man favoured by fortune’.

Notes on the Text

257

The

sofisme

lies in the fact that the knight’s companions do not know that

qanqu’il

a dedanz les murs

refers to the lady of the castle.

259

The use of the affirmative particle

mon

with

oir

is unusual. It is common with

savoir

, and since the two verbs are often synonymous perhaps its use is not surprising

here.

263

MS A, too, has

ne...ne..

., but its reading of v. 264, unlike that of our MS, makes

sense of it:

Chevaliers ne dolt onques / Respasser ne chemin ne vole / Ou bele dame ait qu’il nel

voie

270

Orr rejects the MS’s

armes

, preferring the

dames

of MSS CDFG. The emendation

seems unnecessary, as the expression is used figuratively here. The expression

dames

occurs in

Guillaume de Dole

: ‘Ça, chevalier, as dames!’ (ed. by Lecoy, v. 223).

276

The verb

avoit

has a double function here: (i) as the auxiliary of

torné

; (ii) as the

main verb of the phrase

et (avoit) seurcot

, etc.

Torner en chantel

implies a rakish way of

wearing a cloak, slung jauntily either over the shoulder or to one side. This gives a
splendid picture of the dashing young lover. Jehan Renart has a fondness for such
graphic detail. See for example

Gui

vv. 1574-77:

Lor sires ot tret en chantel / Son mantel

sor son braz senestre. / Tuit cil de la rue et de l’estre / Le resgardent a grant mervelle.

292

Orr adopts MS A’s

s’en cort

, presumably because it is more typical of Jehan

Renart’s style. Our MS’s

ere

renders the line hypermetric.

304

Avec

, ‘in addition to’. A similar use of

avec

is found in vv. 558-59.

305

The reading of MSS ABCD is

Nature en li en son encontre

, which Bédier punctuates

with a full stop after

. This avoids the ‘imperfect rhyme’, as Orr calls it, but rhymes

of this nature are not unknown in Jehan Renart’s works, e.g.

estes: estres

Esc

., vv.

4856-46;

entremetre: chançonete

Gui

vv. 2377-78; and the effacement of the letter ‘r’

in certain consonantal groups is well-attested: see Mildred K. Pope,

From Latin to

Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman: Phonology and Morphology

(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1966, repr. of 1952 edition), p. 396.

306-07

It is inaccurate to speak of the knights hurrying to meet the lady since they

are as yet unaware that she is coming towards them.

307

The reading

de(l) venir

avoids, somewhat narrowly, a rhyme between two words

which are both homophones and homonyms;

venir

in v. 307 is a verbal substantive;

venir

in v. 308 is an infinitive.

323

A reference back to vv. 261-62.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

338ff

There are many reminiscences in the

Roman de la Violette

of the scene which

follows. See

Le Roman de la Violette ou de Gérard de Nevers, par Gerbert de Montreuil,

ed.

by D.L. Buffum (Paris: SATF, 1929). For a modern French translation, see
Gerbert de Montreuil,

Le Roman de la Violette

, ed. and tr. by Mireilles Demaules

(Paris: Stock/Moyen Age, 1992).

346

The other MSS have

li ont promis

, where

eulz

is the subject of the verb. In our MS

the subject of

li ot promis

ses cuers

359

Let

is for

lest

(

laist

), present subjunctive.

374-75

. Esc

., vv. 2982-83:

Sa color li croist et avive / Un cercle d’or qu’il ot el chief.

378

The reading of the other MSS,

si preudom

, seems more appropriate at this stage of

the conversation. The lady seems to know of the knight’s reputation for gallantry (cf

v. 295) and alludes to it in v. 380. On the other hand, the reading

si biaus hon

prepares

us for vv. 382-83.

381

The implication is that the knight would be less valiant by not having an

amie

, the

thought of whom would encourage him in battle or tournament: cf

v. 414ff.

385-87

The colloquial expression

traire la plume par l’oeil a quelqu’un

appears also in

Gui

., vv. 3473-74:

Puis li sot bien trere par l’oel / La plume.

403

This anticipatory use of

, a pre-echo of the

in v. 404, is common in Jehan

Renart’s works.

S’acorder

and

s’asentir

are legal terms and are more or less

synonymous.

416-21

The

que

of v. 420 is dependent on both

tel

(v. 417) and

tant

(v. 419).

438-39

This remark is rather ambiguous. It could mean ‘you would have done better

to try to catch pigeons’ (‘because you will not catch me’ being implied); or ‘you
would have been better employed doing something practical rather than this’. The
image, with its use of everyday, down-to-earth language in a context where one
would not expect it, is highly characteristic of Jehan Renart’s style.

456

Orr suggests that this line inspired a passage in the

Roman de la Violette

, vv. 212-

15:

Je ne sui mie en mer sans mast. / Chil est sans mast ki est amis / Quant en tel bin son cuer a

mis / Ki ne set se on l’aimme point.

457

Tristan, having been wounded by a poisoned spear in his single combat with the

Morholt, asked to be placed in a ship with neither oars nor sails. The ship brought
him to Ireland, where Iseut healed his wounds. Orr punctuates with a comma after

Tristans

, ending the sentence with

fere

466

Orr suggests that

ditié

conceals a derivative from

digitum

and that it means ‘a sign

Notes on the Text

with the finger’. The meaning here seems to be ‘scolding’, ‘chiding’, which would no
doubt be accompanied by an admonitory wagging of the finger. MS A’s version of
this line is stylistically typical of Jehan Renart.

473

Bédier suggests that

garce esgaree

means ‘fille de joie’. This hardly squares with the

epithet

povre

. Orr’s suggestion, ‘poor vagrant lass’, has the right air of commiseration.

485-86

Ne li fausse

is a nominal clause dependent on

la dame est avis

; the use of

que

was

not obligatory in such clauses in Old French.

487

Aillors qu’ilue(c)

, ‘elsewhere than here’, i.e. ‘not merely there and then’.

515-17

These objects were common love-tokens in the Middle Ages.

539-40

The rhyme

teche

simplece

is an indication of the Picard element in Jehan

Renart’s language: the form

simpleche

is very common in Old Picard.

547

, Picard form of

. The form

chaoir

is the result of a confusion on the part of

the scribe. His original probably had

chaïr

caïr

, common Picard forms, which he

replaced with the Francien from

chaoir

, which does not, of course, rhyme with

oïr

Orr emends to

cheïr

without comment.

548

D’endroit ce que

, ‘with regard to the fact that...’. The preterite

volt

would be

preferable to

velt

here.

550

This anticipatory use of

is characteristic of Jehan Renart. Cf

the similar use of

in v. 403.

558

, Picard form of

562-67

The subject of this sentence is

Amors

(v. 566).

593-94

The forms

lessie

plessie

are Picard (Francien

lessiee

plessiee

598-99

Por plorer

, ‘because of

his

weeping’.

Por fere ses faus soupirs

, ‘because he was

uttering feigned sighs’. There is a touch of irony in the passage vv. 598-603, and the
shock the lady is about to receive is well prepared.

606

Manel

. Orr’s reading

mainuel

is incorrect, although the form

menouel

occurs in MS

B. The word would seem to derive from

minellus

, influenced by

manus

. Our scribe’s

manmel

is probably a misreading of

manuel

mainuel

. The usual meaning of

doit manel

is ‘ring finger’. Its sense here is clearly ‘little toe’.

623

Soutise

, either an analogical feminine form from the masculine

soutis

, or a scribal

correction for the sake of the rhyme, from

soutille

(cf

v. 567). Imperfect rhymes are

not uncommon in the works of Jehan Renart.

Le Lai de l’Ombre

677

Sor li desfendant

, ‘in conflict with herself’, ‘fighting against her inclinations’.

696-97

The contorted syntax here, and elsewhere in this episode, is indicative of the

lady’s agitated state of mind.

704-05

This remark is ironic, suggesting that if he wishes her to consider him as her

ami

at this first conversation simply on the strength of his chivalry and his sighing,

then he would not have worked hard for it.

716-17

There is another example of this curious litotes, which is obviously of popular

origin, in

Gui

., vv. 1405-12:

‘Ele fu nee sanz pareille
Et de beauté et de simplece:
Et de son beau chanter, par est ce
Une tres douce melodie:
Nuls ne l’oït qu’autretel n’en die’.

―

‘Et que sez tu?’

―

‘Je l’ai oïe’.

Ne le feri pas lez l’oïe
Qui si li loe la pucele.

Cf. also a similar expression in

Esc

., vv. 5644-45:

Sachiés qu’ele ne li a mie / A cest mot la

teste brisie.

The use of the colloquialism is stylistically typical of Jehan Renart.

728

The form

seïr

(Francien

seoir

) is characteristically Picard.

773-74

Angoisse

: the original probably had

anguisse

(to rhyme with

cuisse

), a common

form in the Northern dialects, which the scribe has ‘corrected’.

776-77

. Gui

., vv. 4984-85:

Ha! Dame, mal fet qui confont / Ce dont il puet estre an

deseure!

780

The

here is a ‘negative’

, which is used because of the negative attitude of the

speaker: ‘Nor is there any woman’, ‘and there is no woman...’. The rhyme

destrece: a ce

is, at first sight, disturbing, but is of a type which is not unusual in Jehan Renart’s
works. The

has full syllabic value, whereas the -ce in

destrece

forms a feminine

ending on an already eight-syllable line.

785-86

Although

servise

and

devise

form a visual rhyme, their endings would not rhyme

in Francien (-

; -

). In Picard, however, there was a tendency for voiced intervocalic

‘s’ to become unvoiced, and forms like

devisse

were common (see Gossen,

Petite

grammaire de l’ancien picard

, para. 49). For Jehan Renart, therefore,

service

and

devise

probably rhymed with an unvoiced final ‘s’.

796

Orr translates

sire

as ‘lord and master’; ‘husband’ might be appropriate here, as

the word often has this meaning in Old French.

Notes on the Text

810-12

These lines provide a typical example of Jehan Renart’s love of the colloquial

expression.

814-17

Orr suggests that ‘given the twice attested expression

chanter d’autre Bernart

“to

change one’s tune” (see Tobler-Lommatzsch, s.v. ‘Bernart’), it may well be that E
(our MS)’s

Renart

is wrong, although the meaning remains obscure in either case’.

However, it is quite likely that Jehan Renart is referring to a precise passage in the

Roman de Renart

, where Renart is condemned to death by Noble:

Or vos metront ou col le

hart, / si parlerons d’autre Renart

. (

Le Roman de Renart: édition bilingue,

ed. by M. de

Combarieu et J. Subrenat, 2 vols (Paris: Union Générale d’Éditions, 1981),

Première

branche,

vv. 1915-16). Here the meaning is ‘We will speak of another Renart because

you, the present Renart, will be dead and gone’. The whole question is complicated
by the existence of the parallel expression

parler d’autre Bernart

, which occurs in other

MSS’s versions of the

Roman de Renart

, as in other MSS of the

Lai de l’Ombre

, and

which usually has attributed to it the meaning given above. (Bernart, let us
remember, is the name of the boring and sententious ass in the

Roman de Renart

). The

verb used in the

Lai de l’Ombre

, however, is

chanter

, not

parler

. MS 837’s

chanter de

Bernart

could well mean ‘to go on repeating oneself in a boring fashion (like the ass

Bernart)’. On the other hand, Orr makes the plausible suggestion that, in writing

chanter de Renart

, the author of the

Lai de l’Ombre

deliberately made a pun on his own

name; there is a similar passage in

Gui

., vv. 5403-07, where the author gratuitously

mentions his own name. Given the agreement of five of the MSS on

chanter de Bernart

however, it could be that the variant

Renart

was introduced by a scribe and was not in

the original version. Yet the mention of the

hart ou col

brings us back inevitably to the

Roman de Renart

. We seem to have here a perfect example of literary ‘contamination’.

On the one hand, the reading

chanter de Bernart

fits the context perfectly: ‘It seems

that you are teaching me to repeat myself

ad nauseam

,’ (i.e. ‘you will not take “no” for

an answer’). On the other hand, the author’s name and the allusion to the

Roman de

Renart

support the reading

chanter de Renart

. If the latter expression is taken in the

sense in which

parler d’autre Renart

is used in the

Roman de Renart,

i.e. ‘to talk of

something else’ (since the matter is done with), perhaps the knight is saying here: ‘It
seems to me that you are insisting that I change the subject. Nevertheless I would
rather be hanged than take the ring back’.

822

If we were to retain our MS’s reading here,

puet

in v. 823 would have to be

replaced by

puis

, first person present indicative of

pooir

832-33

One would have expected the singular

geu parti

, since a

jeu parti

offered a

choice of two alternatives. The term here seems to mean ‘one of two alternatives’.

836-37

An allusion to a proverbial expression:

Tant estraint on les croutes que la mie en

saut

(Morawski, # 2295).

858

: MSS A and B have

nel

, ‘it’ being the ring, and the line means: ‘He did not call

it by its name’, i.e. did not call it ‘your ring’ or ‘my ring’. Orr suggests that

nel

(i.e.

), to an author whose language had Picard features, could represent

ne la

, the

Le Lai de l’Ombre

referring to the lady. This is not so, as the Picard feminine

did not combine

enclitically with

etc. If

is not merely a scribal error brought about by the

proximity of

noma

, it provides an example of the enclisis of

ne la

which is not found

elsewhere.

890

En non Dieu

: the scribe may well have been induced by the presence of this

expression in v. 892 to use it here. On the other hand, this kind of deliberate
repetition is not uncommon in the works of Jehan Renart.

902-03

The notion that a man’s reputation could be enhanced because a lady had

accepted his love is a commonplace of courtly literature.

904

The construction is confused here because the author has combined two ideas:

(i) ‘Would that there were...’; (ii) ‘Why is there not?’

938

Our MS’s

avrez

may well be a scribal misreading of a version which occurs in

MSS C and G:

Je cuit que vos n’en

―

nel

―

harez mie

, ‘I think that you will not hate it less

than yours’, where the line is ironic. It is possible that our scribe’s original had

harez

harés

hair

), which he mistook for the Picard

arés

, fut. 5

avoir

, and which he

replaced with the Francien form

avrez

. Of the three readings preserved by the MSS

(

amerez

harez

avrez

), our MS’s is the weakest, although it makes perfect sense.

952-53

This rather arch expression of discretion on the part of the author is common

in courtly literature

―

see Chrétien de Troyes’

Erec et Enide

―

where a complicit veil is

often drawn over moments of love-making.

962

There is a pun on

conter

, ‘to relate’ and ‘to count’. Cf

the pun on

rimer

in v. 46.

Index of Proper Names

Adanz

919

Adam

Alemaingne

55 Germany

Chaälons

57 Châlons-sur-Marne (Marne)

Chaëre

243

Cairo

Citiaus

669 Monastery at Cîteaux (Côte-d’Or)

Deu

190,

Deus

92,

Dex

154,

Dieu

744,

Diex

421 God

Empiere

54,

Empire

940 Holy Roman Empire

Eslit

41 Bishop Elect (see note)

Espirs

Li Sains E.

600 Holy Spirit

Gauvain

61 celebrated hero of Arthurian Romance

Guillaume

22 hero of Jehan Renart’s

Roman de l’Escoufle

Iseut

125 Isolde or Iseult, Tristan’s mistress

Loheraingne

55 Lorraine

Lot

60 King of Orkney, character of Arthurian Romance and

father

Gauvain

Nicolas (saint)

470 Saint Nicholas (one of the most popular saints of

medieval

legend)

Ombre

Lay de l’O.

52,

Lais de l’O.

961 The Lay of the Reflection

(title

poem)

Perchois

57 Le Perche (county in the Bassin Parisien)

Renart

815 Reynard the Fox, hero of the

Roman de Renart

(see

note)

Salehadin

251 Saladin

Tristans

105 Tristan, famous tragic lover of medieval romance

Turs

243 Turks, Saracens

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