(ca. 1140–ca. 1190)
Chrétien de Troyes, writing in French in the late 12th century, may be the inventor of the genre of chivalric ROMANCE. He is certainly the poet most responsible for shaping the form and style of Arthurian literature as it developed through the high Middle Ages. Basing his narratives in part on tales told by wandering Breton MINSTRELS, and building on the currency of GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH’s pseudo-historical HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN (ca. 1136), Chrétien adapted the legends of King ARTHUR and his knights to the current vogue of COURTLY LOVE and created a new kind of literature, more focused on the interior development of individual knights than on the nationalistic stories of war available in the established narrative CHANSONS DE GESTE. Five Arthurian romances are attributed to Chrétien: ÉREC ET ÉNIDE (ca. 1170); CLIGÈS (ca. 1176); YVAIN (or Le Chevalier au Lion, The Knight with the Lion) and LANCELOT (or Le Chevalier de la Charrette, The Knight of the Cart), which he worked on simultaneously between ca. 1177 and 1181; and finally PERCEVAL (or Conte du Graal, The Story of the Grail), which he left unfinished upon his death, sometime before 1191. His works survive in some 30 manuscripts, two of which contain all five romances. Little can be said about Chrétien’s life other than what can be gleaned from the comments, particularly the prologues, to his extant romances. He dedicates his Lancelot to the Countess MARIE DE CHAMPAGNE, daughter of ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, who had married Count Henry the Liberal sometime between 1159 and 1164. Chrétien claims to have gotten both the subject matter and themes of his poem from Marie, implying that he was likely a court poet at Troyes, the capital of Champagne, during Marie’s time there. The dedication of Perceval to Philip, count of Flanders, suggests that Chrétien found a new patron in Philip in the 1180s, and the unfinished state of Perceval may indicate that Chrétien died before the count’s death in 1191.
In Cligès, Chrétien declares that he is the author of Érec et Énide, and that he has also translated Ovid’s Commandments and The Art of Love into French, along with parts of the Latin poet’s Metamorphoses.He also claims to have written a poem of King Mark and Isolde the Blond—a contribution to the famous medieval legend of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE that is no longer extant. This prologue establishes a fairly clear chronology of Érec as Chrétien’s first romance and Cligès as his second, the other three following since they are not yet mentioned. It also suggests that Chrétien was a writer educated in the seven LIBERAL ARTS, familiar with Latin, but working in the vernacular for nobles at court—and therefore likely a cleric, like his contemporary in Marie’s court, ANDREAS CAPELLANUS.
Chrétien’s romances are written in the traditional verse form of Old French, octasyllabic (eight-syllable) couplets. They average about 7,000 lines (except for Perceval, which is unfinished at 9,000). The five poems explore similar themes, and in that sense complement one another. Érec et Énide explores the marriage of a knight who prefers to spend all of his time at home with his new wife, and his lady who urges him to engage in the kind of adventure that will bring him honor and shore up his sagging reputation. His subsequent struggle to prove his chivalric worth, and his wife’s struggle over whether to keep quiet and obey her husband or to warn him when danger approaches, makes a fascinating narrative of mutual growth in nobility. In the comic romance Cligès, the plot focuses on the importance of maintaining technical purity and innocence, and on the heroine’s not becoming like the adulterous Isolde. Fénice is loved by Cligès and returns his love, but will not be unfaithful to her husband. Therefore she takes a potion that makes her appear to be dead, and once she is legally dead, she is free to indulge her love for Cligès—thus by the end of the romance her morality is just as questionable as Isolde’s.
In Yvain, Chrétien reverses the situation of Érec, for the protagonist, after winning his lady, is granted leave to go forth and win his reputation, but forgets his promise to return to his wife in a year. After she forsakes him,Yvain must go through grief and madness before he works his way back to his beloved through acts of charity and service to others. In Lancelot, the situation of Cligès is reversed, and Lancelot and GUENEVERE engage in precisely the kind of affair that Tristan undertook with Isolde, and Lancelot’s willingness to perform any task, even if it means his public dishonor, is a sign of his perfect private devotion to his beloved.
In Chrétien’s final romance, Perceval, the protagonist is depicted in a long process of maturation, learning about knighthood, about love, about religion, and ultimately about charity, since he learns it was his lack of charity that prevented him from achieving some of the tasks set before him, including asking the question about the nature of the Grail procession that will cure the Fisher King. Chrétien is also the author of two extant lyric poems, and has occasionally been suggested as the author of the pseudo-hagiographical Guillaume d’Angletree, though most scholars dispute his authorship of this text. Although recognized as a pioneer, Chrétien has not always been appreciated as an artist. In the early 20th century, the scholar Joseph Bédier called him “not so much a creative artist as a clever compiler.”But he is responsible for introducing the Lancelot-Guenevere story and the theme of the Holy Grail into the Arthurian tradition— two of the tradition’s most enduring themes. His use of the romance influenced popular and courtly literature for some 400 years, and his courtly style was adopted by GUILLAUME DE LORRIS in the highly influential 13th-century ROMAN DE LA ROSE. His stories influenced Middle High German texts like WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH’s PARZIFAL, on the later French VULGATE CYCLE, on MIDDLE ENGLISH romances like YWAIN AND GAWAIN and SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES, and even texts in Italian or in Old Norse. Chrétien’s influence on subsequent literature has been enormous, and it might be argued that his focus on the growth and maturity of characters and on their interior lives begins the development that leads to the modern novel.
Bibliography
■ Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Translated by William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll. Introduction and notes by William W. Kibler. New York: Penguin, 1991.
■ Frappier, Jean. Chrétien de Troyes: The Man and His Work. Translated by Raymond J. Cormier. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1982.
■ Holmes, Urban Tigner. Chrétien de Troyes. New York: Twayne, 1970.
■ Kelly, Douglas, ed. The Romances of Chrétien de Troyes: A Symposium. Lexington, Ky.: French Forum, 1985.
■ Mullally, Evelyn. The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988.
■ Pickens, Rupert T. The Welsh Knight: Paradoxicality in Chrétien’s Conte del Graal. Lexington, Ky.: French Forum, 1977.
■ Topsfield, L. T. Chrétien de Troyes: A Study of the Arthurian Romances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.