(13th century) French tale
Aucassin et Nicolette is the only surviving example of the genre of the French chantefable, a medieval tale told in alternating sections of prose and verse. The word chantefable is from Old French and literally means “(it) sings (it) recites.” The term may have been coined by the author of Aucassin et Nico-lette, for he says in the work’s concluding lines, “No chantefable prent fin” (“Our chantefable draws to a close”). Nothing is known of the author of this work except that he may have been a professional minstrel from northeastern France, as the work is written in this dialect.
Aucassin et Nicolette is a tale of adventure revolving around the romance of Aucassin, the son of the Count of Beaucaire, and Nicolette, a captive Saracen woman recently converted to Christianity. The work shares much in common with an earlier French romance titled Floire et Blancheflor (ca. 1170): both works share common Moorish and Greco-Byzantine sources and use similar themes of separation and reunion (the lovers endure many complications, including flight, capture, and shipwreck before they are finally able to marry).
The author of Aucassin and Nicolette skillfully depicts the ardor of the characters’ young love, yet he also mocks the epic and romance forms by inverting the roles of the two lovers. Nicolette is portrayed as an intelligent, resourceful young woman (in fact, she proves to be the daughter of the King of Carthage) who disguises herself as a minstrel in order to be reunited with her love. Aucassin, however, is depicted as a pathetic lovesick swain:
He made his way to the palace Climbed the step And entered the chamber Where he began to cry And give vent to his grief And mourn his beloved He lacks initiative, is ungrateful to his parents, and must ultimately be bribed to uphold his duties as a knight. Only under the threat of death does he rise to the task of defending his honor. Aucassin is also shown to be a poor Christian when he states he would prefer to be in hell with his love rather than in heaven.
The verse and musical portions of the work are considered to be more finely wrought than the prose narrative, in which the author displays comparatively less skill. The only surviving manuscript of Aucassin et Nicolette is housed in France’s Bib-liotheque Nationale. It is valued for its mixture of prose and verse, reversal of gender roles, and subtle mocking of courtly fiction.
An English Version of Aucassin et Nicolette
Of Aucassin and Nicolette: A Translation in Prose and Verse from the Old French. Translated by Laurence Housman. New York: Dial Press, 1930.
Works about Aucassin et Nicolette
Cobby, Anne Elizabeth. Ambivalent Conventions: Formula and Parody in Old French. Amsterdam: Rodopi BV Editions, 1995.
Pensom, Roger. Aucassin et Nicolette: The Poetry of Gender and Growing up in the French Middle Ages. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence. “Aucassin and Nicolette.” In Yale Book of American Verse. Edited by Thomas Lounsbury. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1912.
