reference to texts not normally regarded as lais (the fabliau Auberee appears in one
manuscript as the Lais de dame Aubree), and the Lai d’Aristote has many of the features
of a fabliau. Several Old French texts mention lais that have not come down to us. A
manuscript discovered in Shrewsbury School lists sixty-seven lais, most of which are
unknown. No clear definition of a lai can be given, but in its widest sense the term
designates a short narrative in verse. The expression “Breton lais” sometimes used to
designate the entire corpus, is best reserved for poems that present an amalgam of love
and adventure, such as Desiré, Doon, Espine, Graelent, Guingamor, Melion, Tydorel, and
Tyolet. These lais often seem to be related to Celtic stories, and it is also possible that
they were written under the influence of or in reaction to the lais of Marie de France, who
has been seen as the inaugurator of the genre in French.
Melion, for example, tells, like Marie de France’s Bisclavret, of the transformation of
a human into a wolf. Melion’s wife, who is presented as the daughter of the King of
Ireland but who clearly has nonhuman features, requests a piece of the meat of a stag
encountered on a hunting trip. To oblige her, Melion is transformed into a wolf by a
magic ring, but on his return with the meat he learns that his squire and his wife have left
for Dublin. The story then tells of Melion’s difficult but successful pursuit of his wife and
the ring he needs to regain human form. Espine relates the adventures of the illegitimate
son of the King of Brittany and the daughter of the boy’s stepmother by another husband.
The two youngsters are brought up together and fall in love at an early age. The main
event of the lai is the account of the night spent by the hero at the Perilous Ford, where he
defeats a knight in red armor and takes his horse, which is such that it does not require
food and will disappear when its bridle is removed. He encounters two further knights
and finally returns to court with his beloved, who has been miraculously transported to
the ford to witness his prowess. The lovers are married, and they retain the horse until the
girl removes its bridle out of curiosity, whereupon it disappears.
In comparison with the lais of Marie de France, merveilleux, or supernatural, elements
are generally more in evidence in these lais, and there is less emphasis on the birth,
nature, and problems of love. But they share with Marie’s lais many of the themes and
the aristocratic per-sonnel: brave and handsome knights and wise and beautiful maidens.
The stories are set against a background of the ideals and tensions of courtly society. In
Melion and Tyolet, King Arthur plays a prominent role.
Two of the lais, Narcisus and Piramus et Thisbé, are adapted from tales by Ovid and
can be called Lais of Antiquity. Some lais have a strong didactic intent (Conseil,
Espervier, Ignaure, Trot). In Conseil, a lady who cannot choose among three suitors puts
her problem to a knight, whose ability to assess the suitors’ characteristics and explain
the nature of true love is such that the lady accepts and eventually marries him rather than
one of the suitors. Oiselet discusses the nature of courtoisie and vilenie by means of a
talking bird that inhabits a garden owned by a wealthy peasant; the peasant is incapable
of understanding the values of the noble knight from whom the house and garden had
been purchased.
Other lais have fundamentally humorous themes and resemble the fabliaux. In Cor, a
messenger presents King Arthur with a magic drinking horn from which only husbands
with faithful wives can drink without spilling the contents. In Mantel, a youth offers
Arthur a mantle that fits only women who have not been unfaithful. The horn and the
mantle prove the widespread infidelity of the ladies at court. Nabaret pokes fun at a
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