(fl. 1220–1240)
In about 1237, Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first part (4,058 verses) of probably the most important and most influential 13th-century allegorical romance, the ROMAN DE LA ROSE. The text breaks off as a fragment, and was later continued by JEAN DE MEUN about 40 years later (between 1264–74). Jean’s continuation more than doubled the text and brought the account to its close at verse 21,780. Whereas Guillaume does not introduce himself, Jean identifies his source by name. Guillaume originated from Lorris near Orléans, but we know nothing else about him. His portion of the Roman de la Rose, however, proved to be of greatest inspiration for the entire Middle Ages and beyond, basically creating the literary foundation of allegorical poetry.
The Roman begins with the poet dreaming a dream of significant truth for him, for which he finds confirmation in MACROBIUS’s (fl. 400 C.E.) commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (Dream of Scipio). He intends his account to be a literary treatment of the art of love, an art that was indeed teachable for medieval philosophers and writers (see ANDREAS CAPELLANUS’s Art of Courtly Love). Immediately following,Guillaume begins to relate his dream that he had had five years earlier in which he wandered through a beautiful meadow in spring, observing birds, flowers, and a lovely stream.When he comes to a garden surrounded by a high wall, he observes figures and inscriptions engraved in it. These are all allegorical figures, representing the wide range of human emotions, all of them concerning those factors that are detrimental to love: Hate, Felony, Villainy, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy, Sorrow, Old Age, Pope Holy (Hypocrisy), and Poverty.When the narrator tries to enter the garden, he finds the gate locked. After he knocks, a graceful woman (Idleness) opens the door to him. She mentions her friend, Mirth, and allows the Narrator to enter.The garden proves to be like Paradise, and naturally the young man meets Lady Gladness and Lady Courtesy who introduce him to the God of Love.
The narrative now leads us directly to an allegorical explanation of how a person is smitten by love, since the God of Love holds 10 arrows in his hands that reflect two radically opposed aspects of love: first Beauty, Simplicity, Independence, Companionship, and Fair Seeming; then Pride, Villainy, Shame, Despair, and Faithlessness. The God of Love is accompanied by such ladies as Beauty, Wealth (along with Hospitality), Largesse (accompanied by King ARTHUR), Franchise, Gentility, Courtesy, and finally Youth. The garden itself is described again as the most idyllic place ever conceived, anticipating in a way early-modern utopian images. Nevertheless the young man (the Lover) gets to read the story of Narcissus, the letters carved into the wall of a fountain, obviously as a warning to those who fall in love with themselves. But once the dreamer has caught sight of a rose, he falls in love with her. This process is also described in allegorical terms: The God of Love shoots an arrow through the dreamer’s eye that enters his body and goes to his heart, making him a loyal servant of Love. Guillaume casts these events in straight feudal terms, transferring the imagery of giving one’s pledge to the liege-lord to the area of love: “with joined hands I became his man” (Dahlberg 1971, 57). Subsequently the lover learns the Commandments of Love, which have strong similarities to Andreas Capellanus’s rules in his Art of Courtly Love (ca. 1180–90). But he also has to experience the Pains of Love before he is informed about the Remedies for the Pains. The dialectics of love are illustrated in the following sections where the lover is encouraged by Fair Welcome and frightened away by Danger. Then Reason appears and advises the Lover to abjure the God of Love altogether, warning him of the emotional passions of love that make him lose his rationality.
At this point a Friend arrives and provides support for the Lover, soon aided by Franchise and Pity, so that he finally can kiss the Rose, the allegorical goal of all his desires.As quickly as this first success has been achieved, however, failure immediately sets in because Evil Tongue marshals Jealousy against the Lover, building a wall around the rose. At this point, Guillaume’s part of the verse romance breaks off, only followed by 78 additional lines of a sort of conclusion by an anonymous poet.
Guillaume’s section of the Roman de la Rose proves to be most delightful in its gracious exploration of budding love and in its allegorical illustration of the various emotions and passions a lover experiences and the problems that arise in the development of a love relationship. Guillaume elegantly incorporates many elements from classical Latin literature, but the entire framework and specific set-up of his allegorical romance is fully representative of the Middle Ages.
Bibliography
■ Arden, Heather. The Romance of the Rose. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
■ Brownlee, Kevin, and Sylvia Huot. Rethinking the “Romance of the Rose”: Text, Image, Reception. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
■ Dahlberg, Charles, trans.: The Romance of the Rose. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.
■ Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Le Roman de la Rose. Edited by Félix Lecoy. 3 vols. Paris: Champion, 1965–1970.
■ Nouvet,Claire.“Reversing Mirror: Guillaume de Lorris’ Romance of the Rose,” in Translatio Studii. Essays by His Students in Honor of Karl D. Uitti for His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski,Kevin Brownlee,Mary B. Speer, Lori J.Walters.Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000, 89–205.
■ Robbins, Harry W. The Romance of the Rose. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962.
Albrecht Classen