Denis Pyramus was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk of

Bury St. Edmunds Abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was a ...

and an

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

poet who was active in the second part of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. In 1150 he wrote '' Parthénopéus de Blois'', a chivalric tale (romance) whose motif is drawn from the story of

Cupid and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyc ...

. ''Parthénopéus'' was then adapted in the 13th century into a

West Flemish West Flemish (''West-Vlams'' or ''West-Vloams'' or ''Vlaemsch'' (in French-Flanders), nl, West-Vlaams, french: link=no, flamand occidental) is a collection of Dutch dialects spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and t ...

novel in 9000 verses, ''Parthenopeus van Blois'', which tells about the love of King Clovis (Chlodowech). In the 19th century the original story of ''Parthénopéus de Blois'' served as a broad basis for

Alfred Blau Alfred Blau (died 23 February 1896) was a French dramatist and opera librettist. He was a cousin of Édouard Blau, another French librettist of the same period. In late 1887 he was in negotiations with Emmanuel Chabrier for a libretto on the subj ...

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Esclarmonde ''Esclarmonde'' () is an opéra (french: opéra romanesque) in four acts and eight tableaux, with prologue and epilogue, by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Alfred Blau and Louis Ferdinand de Gramont. It was first performed at the Expos ...

'', later turned into an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...

. Pyramus also (in the early 13th century) wrote ''La Vie Seint Edmund le Roi''.

References

JSTOR notes on Pyramus''Anglo-Norman studies''
by

Marjorie Chibnall Marjorie McCallum Chibnall (27 September 1915 – 23 June 2012) was an English historian, medievalist and Latin translator. She edited the ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' by Orderic Vitalis, with whom she shared the same birthplace of Atcham in Shr ...

Catholic Encyclopedia on Denis Pyramus
12th-century English poets Norman-language poets Year of death unknown Anglo-Norman Benedictines Year of birth unknown {{England-poet-stub