The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600

the full import of Tristan’s brief inscription. It has also
been suggested that Tristan used OGHAM, a runic writ-
ing that would be much shorter and could contain a
lengthy communication in a brief space.
A similar confusion exists at the end of “Chevrefoil,”
when Tristan creates his own lai. Marie’s lines could be
read to suggest that Tristan’s song is the one that she is
repeating, or it could be seen as a separate lai (untold)
within the present one.
On a thematic level, the central crux involves Marie’s
stance with regard to the two lovers’ transitory experi-
ence of pleasure in the woods. Is she highlighting, as the
lai’s limited scope would seem to suggest, the ability of
Tristan and Iseult to have this dedication to each other,
this core of commitment and love, despite their pain?
Or is one to understand precisely the opposite signifi -
cance: that the joys of earthly passion are ephemeral
and, while the lovers achieve immediate satisfaction,
their devotion will lead to sorrow and even destruction?
Communication is the other prominent thematic
concern. “Chevrefoil” not only calls attention to its
own communicative role as poetry, but within the tale
Tristan inscribes language fi rst on the hazel stick and
then in the song he composes. Just as the brief episode
related in “Chevrefoil” opens onto a wider plot outside
of the story, so, too, could Tristan’s short message on
the hazel stick be said to represent a deeper set of
meanings. Viewed from one perspective, Marie could
be charting the limitations of representation (just as
she may be proposing the limitations of earthly love).
From another angle, Marie may be valorizing the power
of language to convey, in a reduced form, the essential
character of thoughts and feelings. In particular, schol-
ars have paid attention to Marie’s concern with the
truth (la verité) at the commencement and conclusion
of the poem.
Even Marie’s attention to titles speaks of this syn-
echdochal relationship between language and what it
attempts to convey. The word chevrefoil refers to the lai
itself; to the honeysuckle; and (presumably) to what
the honeysuckle connotes metaphorically, both Iseult
and her inseparable contribution to the love affair.
Interestingly enough, Iseult is not mentioned by name
in the poem (she is called simply “the queen”), and so
the notion of chevrefoil again points to an absence, just

as Tristan’s writing speaks concisely of something to be

more fully revealed in Iseult’s heart, and just as the lai

briefl y communicates a much fuller experience.

See also COURTLY LOVE, SYNEDOCHE.

FURTHER READING

Cagnon, Maurice. “Chevrefeuil and the Ogamic Tradition.”

Romania 91 (1970): 183–155.

McCash, June Hall. “ ‘Ensemble poënt bien durer’: Time and

Timelessness in the Chevrefoil of Marie de France.” Arthu-

riana 9, no. 4 (1999): 32–44.

Reed, Thomas L., Jr. “Glossing the Hazel: Authority, Inten-

tion, and Interpretation in Marie de France’s Tristan,

‘Chevrefoil.’ Exemplaria 7, no. 1 (1995): 99–143.

John Kerr

CHIASMUS Chiasmus is a fi gure of speech that

relies on either semantic or syntactic reverse parallelism.

Syntactically, the grammatical structures in one clause

are mirrored in a second. Semantically, the rhetorical ele-

ments of an argument are reversed in order to create

emphasis. The fi gure takes its name from the Greek letter

chi (Φ), and chiasmus is literally a “placing crossways.”

The device is used in both medieval and Renaissance

literature. In Old English poetry, chiasmus is usually

dependent on syntactical structure. BEOWULF illustrates

this: “I shall undertake noble courage or my end day in

this meadhall abide” (ll. 636–637). The structure of

clause A (before the “or”) has a subject-verb-object

(SVO) structure. By contrast, clause B’s structure is

object-verb, OV, with an unstated subject, thus revers-

ing the order and intensifying clause A.

MIDDLE ENGLISH POETRY and early modern poetry

tend toward semantic chiasmus, where the clause is

reversed in parallel. GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s The BOOK OF

THE DUCHESS demonstrates this: “For I am sorwe and

sorwe is I. For I am sorrow and sorrow is I” (l. 595).

Similarly, Sonnet 87 from SIR PHILIP SIDNEY’s ASTROPHIL

AND STELLA demonstrates this as well: “I would have been

vexed if I were not already vexed” (l. 14).

Larry J. Swain

CHIVALRIC OATHS Chivalric oaths were a

common poetic device of medieval ROMANCEs, CHRONI-

CLEs, and EPICs. The swearing of oaths, in the chivalric

sense, was always a sacred ritual act, a vow undertaken

CHIVALRIC OATHS 113