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On the Date and Composition of Guillaume De Lorris' Roman de la Rose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

Our positive knowledge concerning the date and authorship of the first part of the Roman de la Rose is wholly derived from the lines in which Jean de Meun refers to his predecessor, Guillaume de Lorris:

      Vés-ci Guillaume de Lorris,
      Cui Jalousie, sa contraire,
      Fait tant d'angoisse et de mal traire,
      Qu'il est en péril de morir. Michel's Edition, 11291-94.
      Ci se reposera Guillaume,
      Le cui tombel soit plains de baume. 11326, 11327.
      Car quant Guillaumes cessera
      Jehans le continuera
      Apres sa mort, que ge ne mente,
      Ans trespassés plus de quarante. 11352-55.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1908

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References

page 270 note 1 The claim that Thibaut, the author of the Roman de la Poire, was acquainted with the Roman de la Rose before it came into Jean de Meun's hands, is considered farther on. Waiving this connection for the time being, I know of but three references to the Rose which may antedate the year 1300. They are found in a verse translation of Solomon's Song (in J. Bonnard's Les Traductions de la Bible en vers français au moyen âge, p. 164), which may have been made before the end of the thirteenth century, in Nicole de Margival's Panthère d'Amour (ll. 1029–1038), and in Mahieu de Poiriers' Cour d'Amour (see Tobler's Abhandlungen, p. 288). The first two references are to Guillaume de Lorris' part, the last one to Jean de Meun's.—In an article in the Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartres (year 1907, pp. 249–271) E. Langlois shows that Gui de Mori wrote a continuation to Guillaume de Lorris in 1290. Langlois thinks it more than probable that Gui de Mori did not know at that time about Jean de Meun's work on the romance. But as some fifteen years had passed since Jean de Meun had begun his sequel (which Langlois sets towards the year 1275), such ignorance on the part of Gui de Mori appears quite incredible, especially since Jean de Meun had translated Vegetius in the meantime.

page 270 note 2 Gröber, Grundriss, vol. ii, p. 735. Guillaume de Lorris' own manuscript, undoubtedly of inferior material and loaded with corrections, would hardly have been considered worth saving.

page 271 note 1 See lines 7392–7395.

page 271 note 2 G. Villani, Cronica, vii, c. 27.

page 272 note 1 As stated above, Langlois thinks Jean de Meun wrote towards 1275, but reserves his reasons.—Jean de Meun's error on the subject of Henry's fate is not without bearing on the poet's biography. Had he survived Henry's appointment of 1295, he would undoubtedly have changed the lines which took Henry's death for granted. That he did not do this would imply that he was not alive in 1295, or at the latest in 1296.

page 272 note 2 See the Roman de la Poire, edited by Fr. Stehlich, Halle, 1881, pp. 9, 10.

page 273 note 1 See Jubinal's edition of Rutebeuf (La Vie sainte Elysabel), vol. ii, pp. 311–313, ll. 17, 29, 32, 37, p. 318, 1. 200, etc.

page 274 note 1 Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, vol. v, pp. 571–575.

page 275 note 1 Our information concerning the carole dance seems to be mainly derived from Guillaume de Dole (1199–1201), Méraugis de Portlesguez (1210?–1215?), Guillaume le Maréchal (–1225–), the Roman de la Violette (–1225–1230) and the Roman de la Rose. The description given by Guillaume de Lorris ranks next in definiteness to the one given by the author of Guillaume de Dole. In addition to the proofs of its popularity at this time which these poems offer, frequent allusions to the carole dance, which occur in the Carolingian epic of this period, in the contemporaneous poems on the Crusades and in Gautier de Coincy's Miracles de la Vierge (–1220–), attest the favor which it then enjoyed in fashionable society.

page 278 note 1 Other features of Guillaume de Lorris' composition, as similes, proverbs, and familiar expressions, correspond in general with the style of his day and do not call for particular mention. A notable exception to this uniformity is made, however, by the saying,

Lors feras chastiaus en Espagne, 2454,

of which no other example has been noted.—Also the name of “Fontaine d'Amors” (1. 1605), given by the poet to the spring in which Narcissus drowned himself, seems unique, though he at once adds:

Dont plusors ont en maint endroit
Parlé, en romans et en livre. 1606, 1607.

This name recurs, to be sure, in Watriquet de Couvin (–1319–1329–), a century later, but may have been taken from our romance. It is possible that Guillaume de Lorris invented the appellation himself, for the Narcissus spring and the instances to which he refers may be allusions to the story of that misguided youth.

page 278 note 2 Preëminent among them is E. Langlois's well-known Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose

page 278 note 3 Éracle, edited by E. Loseth, in the Bibliothèque française du moyen âge, vol. vi.

page 279 note 1 In this citation I have used the variant for 1. 2398, and have emended both 1. 2398 and 1. 2399.

page 282 note 1 Charles Joret's brilliant work, La Rose dans l'antiquité et au moyen âge, calls attention, on page 305, to the soothing effects produced by a rose on the lover, in Guillaume de Palerne. In a dream he receives a rose from his mistress and her attendant:

Dessi en droit a lui venoient,
Une rose li aportoient;
Tantost com recevoit la flor,
Ne sentait paine ne dolor,
Travail, grevance ne dehait. 1453–1457.

Guillaume de Palerne may have been written as early as 1190. It cannot be later than 1212.—A rose seen in a garden reminds the lover in Blancandin of his mistress, and he consequently kisses it. But the kiss does not at all alleviate his distress of mind (ll. 2605–2652). The author of Blancandin was probably a contemporary of Guillaume de Lorris.