narrativity—for example, in an idyllic setting the singer
meets a young woman on his path, and after describ-
ing her, he engages her in conversation. Reverdie
became popular during the course of the 13th and
14th centuries in England. Examples include “SUMER IS
ICUMEN IN” and “LENTEN YS COME WITH LOVE TO
TOUNE.”
See also MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS AND BALLADS.
FURTHER READING
Greentree, Rosemary. The Middle English Lyric and Short
Poem. Cambridge and Rochester, N.Y.: D.S. Brewer, 2001.
Daniel O’Sullivan
REYNARD LITERATURE The origins of the
story of the wily, rebellious, and usually badly behaved
fox name Reynard, also known as Renart and Renard,
have long been in dispute. Like much of medieval lit-
erature, stories about Reynard are often seen as either
the result of long folkloric tradition or written works
composed in a particular time and place with infl u-
ences from other traditions. For Reynard literature,
similar stories can be found in the Indian Panchatantra
and the Arabic Kalila wa Dimna, both of which predate
the fox’s appearance in European literature. The Ysen-
grimus, a Latin verse epic, was written in Flanders
around 1150, with its eponymous hero being the wolf,
who is beleaguered by a crafty fox. In the 1170s, Pierre
de Saint Cloud penned the earliest French tales cen-
tered on Renart the fox, and the tales became so popu-
lar that the word renart eclipsed the Old French word
goupil for fox.
Much of Reynard’s popularity can be attributed to
the undoubtedly funny and yet deeply ironic situations
in which the fox fi nds himself. For instance, the
COURTLY LOVE triangle among Reynard, the wolf, and
the wolf’s wife is a satiric send-up of literature of the
period, while Reynard’s participation in a crusade has
profound political importance for a society embroiled
in confl ict. Because of their animal status, Reynard and
his friends allowed authors to poke fun at existing
social conventions and structures, cloaking their mean-
ing behind the “innocent” BEAST FABLEs.
Tales of Reynard’s escapades fl ourished in Germany,
Flanders, and France, and spread to England, written
in ANGLO-NORMAN French. MARIE DE FRANCE’s 12th-
century Fables contain a story taken from the Reynard
cycle, telling of a rooster who outwits a fox. GEOFFREY
CHAUCER reworks and expands this FABLE in “The NUN’S
PRIEST’S TALE.” Reynard stories were retold into the
early modern era in England, as well, including the
WILLIAM CAXTON version of the cycle published in
1485, and some scholars have postulated connections
to the ROBIN HOOD BALLADS.
FURTHER READING
Blake, Norman F. “English Versions of Reynard the Fox in
the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.” Studies in Philology
62 (1965): 63–77.
Varty, Kenneth. Reynard, Renart, Reinaert, and Other Foxes in
Medieval England: The Iconographic Evidence. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press, 1999.
Lynn RameyRHYME ROYAL (CH AUCER I AN STANZ A,
TROILUS STANZA) This STANZA form consists
of seven lines of 10 syllables each, or pentameters, with
a rhyme scheme of ababbcc. GEOFFREY CHAUCER was
one of the fi rst to use rhyme royal in “Complaint unto
Pity,” The PARLIAMENT OF FOWLS, and Troilus and Cri-
seyde. In The CANTERBURY TALES, he used rhyme royal
for “The MAN OF LAW’S TALE,” “The Clerk’s Tale, “The
PRIORESS’S TALE,” and “The Second Nun’s Tale,” all of
which focus on the suffering of a virtuous Christian.
Because Chaucer was the fi rst to use rhyme royal in
English, it is sometimes, albeit rarely, called the Chau-
cerian stanza or the Troilus Stanza because of Troilus
and Criseyde. The form remained popular in the 15th
and 16th centuries and was used by WILLIAM DUNBAR,
ROBERT HENRYSON, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, EDMUND
SPENSER, and SIR THOMAS WYATT. Whereas it had been
thought that rhyme royal took its name from the fact
that JAMES VI/I used it in The KINGIS QUAIR, it has also
been suggested that the name derives from the term
ballad royal, which was used to denote the same verse
form in the 14th century.
FURTHER READING
Stevens, Martin. “The Royal Stanza in Early English Litera-
ture.” PMLA 94 (1979): 67–76.
Michael FosterRHYME ROYAL 343