the very form of these stories, which were written to resemble historical chronicles.
Above all, prose was the medium most suitable to a form of writing that sought to
saturate narrative time and space and capture its fictional universe in its fullness and
complexity.
Similarly attached to a Celtic framework, but with less emphasis on the fantastic (the
love potion is but another name for carnal lust) and with a biographical structure, the
12th-century Tristan romances by Béroul and Thomas d’Angleterre present a more
realistic but also darker view of the passion of love, which cuts off the individual from
society and admits of no outcome other than death.
The Britain of King Arthur remained the favorite setting for romance throughout the
Middle Ages (Perceforest, Ysaie le Triste, Froissart’s Méliador). But after 1150, a
number of works were set in an equally imaginary Near East. Prime among these are the
idyllic romance of Floire et Blancheflor, Chrétien’s “Byzantine” romance Cligés, and, at
the end of the 12th century, poems like Florimont, Ipomedon, and Partonopeu de Blois.
These substitute for the wonders of the fairy otherworld the more concrete marvels of
Byzantium, a city that becomes, in Gautier d’Arras’s Eracle, a story that hovers between
hagiography and romance, the site of an exemplary and creative past.
Gautier’s other romance, Ille et Galeron, which though based on Marie de France’s lai
of Eliduc locates the adventures of its heroes in a “real” world, is one of the first
examples, in the late 12th century, of a new form of romance writing, sometimes termed
“realistic.” The most representative writer of realistic romances is Jean Renart
(Guillaume de Dole, Escoufle, Lai de l’ombre). Also of this type are texts that, like
Galeran de Bretagne, the Roman de la Violette, Joufroi de Poitiers, the Roman du
castelain de Coucy et de la dame de Fayel by Jakemés, the Occitan romance Flamenca,
and others, strive for the illusion of reality. But the narrative cohesiveness of these works
comes primarily from preexisting literary traditions, such as popular stories and courtly
lyrics.
The interpenetration of the lyric and the romance occurs first in the form of lyric
inserts in Guillaume de Dole, then in the Violette, the Castelain de Coucy, and other
works. But it is the very source of the Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris, a poem
that works the motifs of the courtly lyric into a narrative while using the methods of
allegorical writing to create an exemplary erotic quest that is also an art of love. It is this
latter dimension that Jean de Meun prefers to exploit, turning the second Roman de la
Rose into a “Mirror for Lovers,” a didactic locus of philosophical reflections with
encyclopedic pretentions, on the relation of humankind to love and nature.
Also significant among 13th-century romances are tales of extraordinary adventures,
such as Adenet le Roi’s Cleomadés and Girart d’Amiens’s Meliacin, or of edifying
adventures (Philippe de Beaumanoir’s La Manekine or Belle Helaine de Constantinople),
or tales, like Amadas et Ydoine and Jehan et Blonde, that develop the theme of social
climbing by a hero, either a bastard or of lower rank, who triumphs over all obstacles and
wins the hand of his lady.
From its appearance in the 12th century, medieval romance gives an impression of
astonishing diversity, with stories that examine both mythical and historical regions and
time. One theme that stands out, however, is that of the bride quest, which is a vehicle for
exploring the relationship of love with independence and power, love being the means by
which the hero achieves that ideal model of civilization that the 12th century called
The Encyclopedia 1533