The Roman du castelain de Coucy et de la dame de Fayel by Jakemés (second half of
the 13th c.) has as hero the trouvère of the preceding century known as the Châtelain de
Coucy and quotes from his songs. This lengthy romance, which uses the traditional
situations and peripeties of courtly love, ends with the well-known motif of the eaten
heart. It is one of the few medieval romances that do not have a happy conclusion. The
author, who presents himself as a dilettante, is perhaps from the region of Saint-Quentin.
Joufroi de Poitiers (after ca. 1250) is a bizarre and unselfconscious romance that
demonstrates the mingling, characteristic for its period, of personal outpourings and
narrative fiction. A lengthy prologue gives voice to the plaints of a bashful lover, without
in the least seeking to introduce the work that follows. Throughout the romance, the
author’s confessions and comments on his own love affair and on the story disrupt the
rambling and disjointed episodes, devoted mostly to the good fortune of the hero, who is
inspired by the first troubadour, Count Guilhem IX of Poitiers and Aquitaine. The
historical figures appear in happy confusion: Joufroi’s mother is named Eleanor, the
English king is Henry, and the troubadour Marcabru has a cameo role. The story unfolds
with a cynical wit that reminds one of the Occitan romance Flamenca.
La Manekine and Jehan et Blonde are today generally attributed not to the jurist
Philippe de Remi, lord of Beaumanoir and author of the Coutumes du Beauvaisis (ca.
1283), but to his father, also named Philippe de Remi. La Manekine is one of the many
works known throughout all Europe that develop the motif of “The Maiden Without
Hands.” A princess must flee in disguise to escape the incestuous love of her father; she
is taken in by a king who marries her, but later her wicked mother-in-law falsely tells her
son that his wife has given birth to a monster and tries to have her killed. Her only
salvation is to flee once more. Finally, she is reconciled with her husband and her father
and, in La Manekine, also with her left hand, which she had cut off herself, hoping the
deformity would discourage her father’s wicked intentions. In this romance, the heroine
Joie’s father is king of Hungary and her husband king of Scotland; the reconciliation
occurs in Rome. Jehan et Blonde tells in great detail how Jehan, a penniless young noble
from Dammartin, wins the love of Blonde, daughter of the Count of Oxford, by his valor.
He is able to marry her even though her father had promised her to the Count of
Gloucester.
Jean Maillart’s Roman du comte d’Anjou (1316) treats the same theme as La Manekine
but shows more moderation in the choice of episodes, if not in style. The heroine is the
daughter of the Count of Anjou, her husband is the Count of Bourges, and the wicked
mother-in-law is replaced by a wicked aunt, the Countess of Chartres.
All these romances are very similar yet at the same time different. Paradoxically, it is
their very banality, their whimsical and hackneyed plots—indeed, their lack of
verisimilitude—that focuses attention on the settings, the customs, the everyday
activities, and the geographical and historical allusions. Would we be aware of their
“realism” if it were not grafted onto a fairy-tale universe? The true originality of these
romances and their most remarkable common trait is the important place the writers give
to themselves. Whether they intervene directly or show their virtuosity through
intertextual effects born of lyrical insertions, they never let their presence be forgotten.
Michel Zink
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1474