GUILLAUME LE CLERC
(1180/91–after 1238). Among the several poets known by this name in the 13th century,
the most important is the Norman Guillaume le Clerc, to whom are attributed the
Bestiaire divin, the Besant de Dieu, the Livre de Tobie, the Treize Moz, and the fabliau
Du prestre et d’Alison.
The Bestiaire divin (ca. 1210) is an allegorizing bestiary of 4,200 octosyllabic lines
that shows considerable borrowing from the Liber de bestiis et aliis rebus, attributed to
Hugh of Saint-Victor. The Besant de Dieu is another moralizing work of some 3,755
octosyllabic lines that evokes the miseries of the century, invokes the aid of God for the
church, and deplores the lack of a crusade. It was inspired by a reflection Guillaume had
one evening: humankind refuses to accept God’s invitation to feast. The besant represents
the unused talent that the unworthy servant in the parable (Matthew 25:14–30) renders to
his lord. The author through moral edification tries to convince his reader of the evils of
money and greed. By following Guillaume’s advice, men and women have the capability
to double their God-given talents.
Lesser works by Guillaume are the Livre de Tobie, based on the Book of Tobit and
composed for William, prior of Kennelworth, in the first twenty years of the 13th
century; the Treize Moz, a moral work dedicated to Alexander, bishop of Litchfield and
Coventry (1224–38), that draws heavily on the De contemptu mundi sive de miseria
humanae condicionis of Innocent III; and the fabliau Du prestre et d’Alison.
Claude J.Fouillade
[See also: ARTHURIAN VERSE ROMANCE; BESTIARY; PHILIPPE DE THAÜN;
PIERRE DE PROVENCE ET LA BELLE MAGUELONNE]
Guillaume le Clerc. Le bestiaire, ed. Robert Reinsch. Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag (O.R.Reisland), 1890.
——. Le besant de Dieu de Guillaume le Clerc de Normandie, ed. Pierre Ruelle. Brussels: Éditions
de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1973.
GUILLAUME LE MARÉCHAL, HISTOIRE
DE
. Commissioned by his eldest son shortly after the hero’s death in 1219, the anonymous
Histoire is one of the earliest and most successful secular biographies. Modeled on
contemporary hagiographic literature, its 19,214 octosyllabic lines in the Norman dialect
of Old French celebrate the lineage, deeds, and exemplary death of one of the greatest
knights of the 12th and early 13th centuries. Preserved by a single manuscript
(Cheltenham, Phillips 25155), it includes lengthy accounts of tournaments and is a rich
source of information about medieval life and chivalry.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 824