FAUVEL, LIVRES DE
. An allegorical verse satire (3,280 octosyllabic lines) representing the horse Fauvel,
harbinger of the Antichrist and emblem of hypocrisy and evil, whose dun color
symbolizes vanity (fauve suggests faus ‘false’) and whose name spells out his vices:
Flattery, Avarice, Unscrupulousness, Villany, Envy, Laxity (Flaterie, Avarice, Vilanie,
Varieté, Envie, Lascheté).
The anonymous Book 1 of Fauvel (1310) was inspired by the discourse of Faus-
Semblant in the Roman de la Rose and by such animal satires as Renart le nouvel by
Jacquemart Gielée (1288). Condemning those who show their hypocrisy and greed by
“currying Fauvel” (whence our expression “to curry favor”), Book 1 is organized as a
traditional estates satire. It describes the upside-down world ruled by Fauvel and
denounces corruption, decadence, and abuse of power in the church hierarchy, monastic
orders, and the secular world, while commenting specifically on the scandalous charges
brought against the Templars in 1307.
Book 2 was completed December 6, 1314, by a royal notary, Gervais du Bus, perhaps
also the author of Book 1. Book 2 allegorically describes Fauvel’s palace, peopled by
Vices, and offers a noble portrait of Lady Fortune—daughter of God, sister of Wisdom,
and mistress of the temporal world. Wooed by Fauvel, Fortune exhibits her twin crowns
of ephemeral riches and virtuous poverty and her great wheel, whose turning governs the
rise and fall of human destinies. Fortune then rejects his suit and, predicting his eventual
destruction on the Last Day, she marries him off to Vain Glory. Book 2 gains topical
overtones from its allusions to the kingdom of France and from its specific date, a week
after the death of Philip IV and the very moment of the disgrace of his powerful minister
Enguerrand de Marigny.
In 1316–17, another royal administrator, Chaillou de Pesstain, composed the vastly
expanded version of Fauvel found in B.N. fr. 146 (1317), the earliest of a dozen
manuscript sources. Chaillou borrowed extensively from Huon de Méry’s Tournoiement
Antécrist (ca. 1235) and the Roman du comte d’Anjou (1316) by another royal notary,
Jean Maillart, to add some 1,800 lines narrating the wedding festivities of Fauvel: an
allegorical banquet, a rowdy charivari, a tournament of Vices and Virtues, and a Fountain
of Youth, where Fauvel’s followers are renewed. Moreover, Chaillou illustrated his
version with seventy-seven miniatures and 169 musical interpolations, including thirty-
four polyphonic motets in Latin and French, numerous moral-satirical lyrics from the
13th century, and a large number of vernacular pieces in the emerging forme fixe lyric
genres. These make Fr. 146 the most significant musical source to survive from the first
half of the 14th century in France and Fauvel the most sumptuously embellished
medieval romance. The effect of political reference is enhanced in Fr. 146 by the Parisian
setting of the wedding celebration, by insertion of lyrics addressed to Louis X and Philip
V, and by compilation of Fauvel with political dits by Geoffroi de Paris and an
anonymous metrical chronicle of the kingdom of France from 1300 to 1316; these
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