Marie de France: Poetry: A Norton Critical Edition

About this book

Winner of the 2016 Northern California Book Award for Translation of Poetry. Honorable Mention for the 2015 Modern Language Associations Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize For Translation of a Literary Work. Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and who lived in England during the twelfth century. Prominent among the earliest poets writing in the French vernacular Marie de France helped shape the style and genres of later medieval poetry. This Norton Critical Edition includes all of Maries lais (short narrative verse poems); selected fables; and a generous excerpt from Saint Patricks Purgatory a long poem based on a well-known medieval legend. Each text is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. For comparative reading two lais "Bisclavret" and "Ynec " are accompanied by Maries facing-page originals. "Backgrounds and Contexts" is thematically organized to provide readers with a clear sense of Maries inspirations. Topics include "The Supernatural " "Love and Romance " "Medical Traditions " "Fable Sources and Analogues: Similar Themes " and "Purgatory and the Afterlife." Ovid Chaucer Andreas Capellanus Boccaccio Aristotle and Bede are among the authors included. From the wealth of scholarly work published on Marie de France Dorothy Gilbert has chosen excerpts from nine pieces that address issues of history and authorship as well as major themes in the lais fables and Saint Patricks Purgatory. The contributors are Thomas Warton Abb Gervais de la Rue Joseph Bedier Leo Spitzer R. Howard Bloch E. A. Francis Jill Mann and Jacques Le Goff. A selected bibliography is also included.