profession, which reached its height with Molière. The extant manuscripts preserve some
of the music for the songs included in the play.
Closely related to the pastourelle, the Jeu de Robin et Marion (780 octosyllabic lines)
dramatizes the encounter of a shepherdess and a knight on a spring morning. When his
advances are rebuffed, the knight kidnaps the young girl and carries her away on his
horse after beating her friend Robin. However, Marion is soon released unharmed, and
friends arrive to sing, dance, eat, and play games. Spoken dialogue alternates with
singing. When first presented in Arras, the play was preceded by a short dramatic
prologue, in which a pilgrim tells of his travels in Italy and says that everywhere he went
he heard about a talented, gracious, and noble clerk, native of Arras, loved and hon-
The beginning of the section of
chansons by Adam de la Halle in the
Chansonnier d’Arras. Arras,
Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 139
(anc. 657). Courtesy of Arras,
Bibliothèque Municipale.
ored by the count of Artois because of his poetic and musical talent. The pilgrim states
that he visited Adam’s tomb the year before and sings two of Adam’s songs as examples
of his talent.
In addition to the plays, Adam wrote thirty-six chansons, seventeen jeux-partis,
sixteen rondeaux, five motets, a congé, and the first nineteen laisses of an epic poem, the
Roi de Sicile. Fifteen of the seventeen jeux-partis by Adam were composed with Jehan
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