deprivation than over personal loss, and she quickly and capably sets out to find a
replacement. La veuve is a small but important contribution to the continuing “Quarrel of
the Romance of the Rose” that was to rage for centuries in theological and literary circles.
Norris J.Lacy
[See also: FABLIAU]
Livingston, Charles H., ed. Le jongleur Gautier le Leu: étude sur les fabliaux. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1951.
——. “The Jongleur Gautier le Leu: A Study in the Fabliaux.” Romanic Review 15(1924):1–67.
GAWAIN ROMANCES
. Chrétien de Troyes established Arthur’s nephew Gawain (Gauvain, Gavain, and other
orthographical variants) as one of the major figures of Arthurian romance. Although he
had never made Gawain a hero proper, he had allotted half of the narrative to him in his
last romance, Perceval (ca. 1180). Whereas the majority of post-Chrétien verse
romancers continue to use Gawain largely as a foil or adjunct to the hero, a small number
do make him the center of attention and the major protagonist, availing themselves of an
opportunity left unseized by Chrétien and others. The author of the Chevalier à l’épée
(end of the 12th c.) in fact claims that he is writing a romance about Gawain because
Chrétien had not done so.
The Chevalier à l’épée and the contemporaneous Mule sans frein can be seen as a pair
for a number of reasons: they are both short (1,206 and 1,136 lines, respectively), are of
approximately the same date, appear in the same manuscript (Bern, Burgerbibliothek
354), may be by the same author (who signs himself in the latter as Paien de Maisières),
and are characterized by the same humorous and burlesque treatment of conventional
romance motifs. In the Chevalier à l’épée, Gawain becomes enamored of a young
woman, attempts to seduce her but is prevented from doing so by a sword that descends
from above the bed, loses her to a stranger knight she sees urinating in the bushes,
avenges himself on the latter, and then abandons the girl to her own devices. The Mule
sans frein relates how Gawain braves all kinds of perils (lions, serpents, dwarfs, a
beheading test) to retrieve a bridle for a damsel.
The Vengeance Raguidel, probably by Raoul de Houdenc, author of another Arthurian
romance, Meraugis de Portlesguez, is more substantial. Some 6,182 lines long and dating
from the first quarter of the 13th century, it concerns the avenging by Gawain of
Raguidel, a knight treacherously killed by the wicked Guengasoain. Although Gawain
carries out the vengeance, it is only after forgetting the lance point required to kill the
murderer and after a series of sometimes farcical adventures, many of them related to
Gawain’s various love affairs. The shine is further taken off Gawain’s achievement by
the fact that he requires the help of another knight, Yder, to avenge Raguidel. Another
full-length Gawain romance is the Atre périlleux (6,676 lines), dating from the second
quarter of the 13th century. In this romance, Gawain finds and kills Escanor, a knight
who had abducted Arthur’s cupbearer; in the course of the quest, Gawain is confronted
with the news of his own death and beheads a devil who had imprisoned a damsel in a
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