De Troyes
Achievements: Courtly Love poetry
Born: c. 1130; probably in or near Troyes, France
Died: c.1185; France (Aged about 55)
Field & Discipline: Literature; Writer
Language: French
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Spouse: Unknown
Children: Unknown
Education: Unknown
Major Works:
"Erec et Enide"
"Cliges"
"Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart"
"Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion"
"Perceval, or the Story of the Grail"
Life & Times:
Little is known about Chretien. He was probably a native of Troyes and certainly the dialect he used in his writings suggests he was born and brought up in the Champagne area of Northern France. At some stage, he was given a classical liberal education, probably at one of the flourishing ecclesiastical schools in Troyes, where the curriculum included a broad range of subjects, including rhetoric.
A thriving court existed in Champagne around the middle of the 12th century, where the courtly ideals of chivalry and refinement were scrupulously maintained. Heroes were not only brave in war, but idealistic, loyal and sensitive. Heroines were not only beautiful, but cultured, kind, gentle, and virtuous.
Courtly love was an elaborate ritual that had little to do with sex or marriage and may have sprung from the shortage of aristocratic women available for marriage. The object of love was glorified from a distance. Courtly literature consisted of songs, poems and ballads that reflected this behavior. Chretien is credited with being the first to write courtly stories by weaving episodes from separate sources into a coherent narrative. He drew on classical and folk material as well as the tales told by the many travelers, merchants and entertainers who attended the two great annual fairs at Troyes.
Chretien's best known romances were based on Celtic legends, primarily Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kingdom of Britain" (1147), which appeared in a French translation in 1155. Geoffrey's history, an elaborate fable, included the story of the legendary King Arthur, who in the sixth century defeated the Saxons, created a kingdom, and was finally defeated through treachery and betrayal. Chretien transformed the Arthurian legends into chivalric romances not only about ideals and courtly love, but also about the search for the Holy Grail, which gave an other-worldly dimension to what were generally straightforward adventures. He also explored the psychological effects of love on his characters.
Chretien wrote in the vernacular and usually in rhyming couplets of eight syllables. He had an elegant, even ironic, style and his stories were highly sophisticated, combining fantasy with the classical virtues of restraint and reason, and mixing contemporary social situations with questions of honor, love and morality. "Erec" , the first of his five Arthurian romances, explored the nature of love within a marriage: Enide, the wife, feels obliged to disobey her knightly husband in order to save his life, and their mutual love is strengthened by the trials they experience.
"Cliges", Chretien's most theoretical work, explored the psychology of love. "Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart" described the downfall of Lancelot, the embodiment of courtly love, who is brought to the cart of infamy by putting the code of love above the code of honor. Chretien was the first to set the court of King Arthur in Camelot and the first to tell of the fatal attraction between Lancelot and Guinevere, King Arthur's wife. "Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion" dealt with a brave but impulsive knight who forgets the courtesy due his wife, Laudine. After a series of trials, he turns into a chivalric knight who comes to understand the demands of law, pity and charity, and his new-found nobility earns him the love of the lion, king of beasts.
It is probable that Chretien was attached to the court at Champagne. The dedication of "Lancelot", to Marie de Champagne, daughter of King Louis VII of France and [patron was daughter of] Eleanor of Aquitaine*, says that the writer is indebted to Marie for the subject of the story, and implies she was one of his patrons.
Extra Connections: Courtly love may have originated in the [possibly inspired by] Cabbalism* or [possibly inspired by] Cathar* mystic sects.
Chrétien has been termed "the inventor of the modern novel". Karl Uitti argues: "With [Chrétien's work] a new era opens in the history of European story telling… this poem reinvents the genre we call narrative romance; in some important respects it also initiates the vernacular novel."[17] A "story" could be anything from a single battle scene, to a prologue, to a minimally cohesive tale with little to no chronological layout.
Assessment: Had many imitators, and his talent for turning episodes into a coherent narrative influenced the work of verse storytellers who came after
Oneliner: Chretien de Troyes, poet related to Cabbalism.
Bibliography:
- Frappier, Jean, trans. Cormier, Raymond J., Chretien de Troyes, The Man and His Work, Ohio University Press, Ohio, 1982.
- Weir, Alison, Eleanor of Aquitaine, By the Wrath of God, Queen of England, Jonathan Cape, London, 1999.