jealous husband who has married a woman of superior rank. Lecheor reduces the whole
of knightly aims and activities to the search for sexual gratification. In what is probably
the best lai of the entire corpus and one that fits into none of the above categories, Jean
Renart in the Lai de l’ombre presents a verbal duel between a handsome knight and a
lady well equipped with arguments to counter his offer of love. Composed from the
second half of the 12th century until probably late into the 13th, these lais vary in quality,
but they represent the earliest form of the short story in French literature.
Glyn S.Burgess
[See also: FABLIAU; MARIE DE FRANCE; OVIDIAN TALES]
Micha, Alexandre, ed. and trans. Lais féeriques des XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Paris: Garnier-
Flammarion, 1992. [French translations; texts of Tobin edition: Desire, Doon, Espine, Grae-
lent, Guingamor, Lecheor, Melion, Nabaret, Trot, Tydorel, Tyolet.]
Tobin, Prudence M.O., ed. Les lais anonymes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Geneva: Droz, 1976.
Baader, Horst. Die Lais: Zur Geschichte einer Gattung der altfranzösischen Kurzererzählungen.
Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1966.
Brereton, Georgine E. “A Thirteenth-Century List of French Lays and Other Narrative Poems.”
Modern Language Review 45 (1950):40–45.
Donovan, Mortimer J. The Breton Lay: A Guide to Varieties. Notre Dame: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1969.
Kroll, Renate. Der narrative Lai als eigenständige Gattung in der Literatur des Mittelalters.
Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1984.
Payen, Jean-Charles. Le lai narratif. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975.
Smithers, G.V. “Story-Patterns in Some Breton Lays.” Medium Aevum 22 (1953):61–92.
LAI-DESCORT
. The lai-descort is an independent lyric piece treating the same themes and occurring in
the same chansonniers as the canso and the grand chant courtois. Developed in the late
12th or early 13th century, it distinguishes itself from the canso on strictly formal
grounds: by the variable length of verses and stanzas within the individual text. The lai-
descort tends to be slightly longer than the canso, though the number of stanzas rarely
exceeds twelve. Musically, the lai-descort is complicated, with a new melody for each
stanza. In contrast to the canso, it uses few melismas, each syllable corresponding to a
single note. Though possibly originating in the south, the genre was practiced
simultaneously by both trouvères and troubadours. In the north, it often served as a
vehicle for religious expression. In the 14th century, at the hands of Guillaume de
Machaut in particular, the structure of the lai-descort, or simply lai, became more rigid,
with stanza divisions into halves and quarters and with the final stanza formally identical
to the first. The lai-descort should not be confused with the narrative lai or the Arthurian
lais integrated into certain prose romances, nor with the Lais (“Legacies”) of François
Villon.
Elizabeth W.Poe
Bec, Pierre. La lyrique française au moyen-âge (XIIe-XIIIe siècles): contribution a une typologie
des genres poétiques médiévaux. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1977–78, Vol. 1: Études; Vol. 2: Textes.
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