GAUTIER D’AUPAIS
(fl. early 13th c.). The author of Gautier d’Aupais, an 876-line tale from the first half of
the 13th century in a language slightly tinged with Picardisms, certainly was a minstrel
from the Île-de-France. Although he employed the monorhymed laisse characteristic of
the chanson de geste, we still find the themes, devices, and formulae of the courtly
romances in the “Salut d’amour,” in the portrayal of Gautier’s infatuation, and in the
evocation of his lady’s emotion.
Annette Brasseur
Faral, Edmond, ed. Gautier d’Aupais, poème courtois du XIIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 1919.
[Based on B.N. fr. 837.]
GAUTIER DE COINCI
(1177/78–1236). Gautier entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Médard in Soissons
in 1193, was appointed prior of Vic-sur-Aisne in 1214, and returned to Soissons in 1233
as prior of Saint-Médard. He was a prolific writer, whose works include religious songs,
two sermons, and four saints’ lives, as well as the Miracles de Nostre Dame, for which he
is most famous. A series of narrative poems on the birth of Mary, the childhood of Jesus,
and the Assumption, and a paraphrase of the Psalm Eructavit, appear in some
manuscripts of the Miracles and are sometimes credited to him. The attribution of the
Saint dent Nostre Seigneur, a poem about a relic discovered at Soissons, which appears in
only two manuscripts, is even less certain.
The Miracles (ca. 30,000 lines) are divided into two books organized symmetrically.
Each begins with a prologue and a series of seven songs in honor of the Virgin. The first
book, begun in 1218 and revised four years later, contains thirty-five miracles and ends
with three songs in honor of St. Leocadia. The second book, with twenty-three miracles,
was perhaps written between 1223 and 1227. Gautier, who sought to convert the lapsed
and strengthen the faith of the believer, intended his collection for an unlearned but
aristocratic audience, as he expresses contempt for the vileins.
Gautier found his stories in a collection of Latin Marian legends in his monastery at
Soissons. Although this manuscript has been lost, enough of its character has been
established to determine the way Gautier treated his sources. He did not follow his model
slavishly but sometimes expanded it by resorting to other sources and even drew on
events of his own life. In most stories, a sinner is saved by a single redeeming virtue,
usually devotion to the Virgin. The final sections of the stories, often satirical attacks on
all classes of society, are original and of great interest to modern readers. Gautier was a
skilled versifier who made frequent use of rich and equivocal rhymes. The reactions of
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