''Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion'' is reputedly the earliest French secular play with music, written in around 1282 or 1283,''

Hutchinson Encyclopedia The ''Hutchinson Encyclopedia'' is an English-language general encyclopedia. It is a single volume designed for use in the home, libraries and schools. It attempts to be readable by reducing the use of technical language. A small subset of the Enc ...

'' (1988), p.10 and is the most famous work of

Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer '' trouvère''. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and progr ...

. It was performed at the Angevin Court in Naples around this time.

Plot and music

The story is a dramatization of a traditional genre of medieval French song, the

pastourelle The pastourelle (; also ''pastorelle'', ''pastorella'', or ''pastorita'' is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who bests him in a batt ...

. This genre typically tells of an encounter between a knight and a shepherdess, frequently named Marion. Adam de la Halle's version of the story places a greater emphasis on the activities of Marion, her lover Robin and their friends after she resists the knight's advances. It consists of dialogue in the old Picard dialect of de la Halle's home town, Arras, interspersed with short refrains or songs in a style which might be considered popular. The melodies to which these are set have the character of folk music, and seem more spontaneous than the author's more elaborate songs and

motets In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Marga ...

. Two of these melodies in fact appear in the motets, ''Mout me fu gries de departir/Robin m'aime, Robin m'a/Portare'' and ''En mai, quant rosier sont flouri/L'autre jour, par un matin/He, resvelle toi Robin''. The attribution of these motets to Adam de la Halle is unconfirmed.

History

Adam de la Halle wrote the Jeu de Robin et Marion for the Angevin Court of

Charles I of Naples Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) ...

. He originally went to Naples in the service of

Robert II of Artois Robert II (September 1250 – 11 July 1302) was the Count of Artois, the posthumous son and heir of Robert I and Matilda of Brabant. He was a nephew of Louis IX of France. He died at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Life An experienced soldie ...

. The play was first performed there and it has been suggested that the choice of genre was particularly poignant for those members of the court homesick for France. Although it is tempting to link the characters of French medieval ''pastourelle'' and ''Le'' ''Jeu de Robin et Marion'' with the early history of

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

and

Maid Marian Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...

, there has been no link proved between the two. The function of these characters within their respective societies was similar: to offer a form of escapism through the imagination into a world of innocent rustic play or heroic greenwood bravery. An adaptation by Julien Tiersot was performed at Arras in 1896 at a festival in honour of Adam de la Halle, by a company from the Paris

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

References

{{Authority control Medieval French theatre 1282 works