completed with the death of Desramé, when Guillaume is alone and numerous Christians
are still held by the Saracens; in this case, the model for G^2 and Aliscans could have been
at least partially linked to the primitive poem.
Crossroads of the formative elements of the Guillaume cycle, a work rich in passages
of beauty, the Chanson de Guillaume in the state in which it has come down to us is
exasperating for its modern editors, caught between the desire to respect the text and that
of finding the original. Readers, on the other hand, will find only pleasure in this
unforgettable poem, worthy of comparison with the Roland.
François Suard
[See also: ALISCANS; GUILLAUME D’ORANGE CYCLE]
McMillan, Duncan, ed. La chanson de Guillaume. 2 vols. Paris: SATF, 1949–50.
Suard, François, ed. and trans. La chanson de Guillaume. Paris: Bordas, 1991.
Wathelet-Willem, Jeanne, ed. Recherches sur La chanson de Guillaume: études accompagnées
d’une édition. 2 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1975.
Bennett, Philip. “La chanson de Guillaume, poème anglo-normand?” In Au carrefour des routes
d’Europe: la chanson de geste. Xe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals, ed. Jean
Subrenat. 2 vols. Aix-en-Provence: CUER MA, 1987, Vol. 1, pp. 259–81.
Frappier, Jean. Les chansons de geste du cycle de Guillaume d’Orange. 3 vols. Paris: SEDES,
1955–83, Vol. 1, pp. 113–233.
GUILLAUME DE LORRIS
(fl. 1220–40). The Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris, a poem of 4,028 lines
thought to have been written ca. 1225–40, has always been linked to Jean de Meun’s
Roman de la Rose, a poem more than four times the length of Guillaume’s and written as
its continuation. It is in Jean’s poem that the reader learns the names of the authors of the
two works and the fact that Guillaume died before completing his roman, which he had
written some forty years earlier.
Although Jean de Meun’s roman became one of the most popular works of the Middle
Ages, read and cited extensively through the Renaissance and existing in more than 250
manuscripts, Guillaume de Lorris’s unfinished poem has captured the imagination of the
post-18th-century reading public and remains a source of lively critical debate.
In a prologue of twenty lines, the author discusses the importance of dreams (with a
reference to Macrobius) and establishes the dream narrative of the text itself. In the
narrative proper, set in springtime, the dreamer discovers an enclosed garden. On the wall
of the garden are portrayed Hate, Felony, Baseness, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy,
Sadness, Old Age, Hypocrisy, and Poverty—all characters excluded from the inside of
the garden. The Dreamer enters through the only gate, guarded by Idleness, a beautiful
lady whose day is spent fixing her hair and face. Inside the garden, the Dreamer meets
Merriment and his friends Beauty, Wealth, Generosity, Nobility, Courtesy, and Youth.
As the Dreamer makes a tour of the garden, he is stalked by the God of Love and
overcome at the Fountain of Narcissus, a spring at the center of the garden whose two
brilliant crystals allow one to see all things in the garden. While looking into the crystals,
the Dreamer sees a rose, falls in love, and becomes the Lover. The God of Love now
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