Chrétien De Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including '' Erec and Enide'', ''Lancelot'', ''Perceval'' and '' Yvain'', represent some of the best-regarded works of medieval literature. His use of structure, particularly in ''Yvain'', has been seen as a step towards the modern novel.

Life

Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been from Troyes or at least intimately connected with it. Between 1160 and 1172 he served (perhaps as herald-at-arms, as Gaston Paris speculated) at the court of his patroness Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, daughter of King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married Count Henry I of Champagne in 1164. Later, he served the court of Philippe d'Alsace, Count of Flanders. As proposed by Urban T. Holmes III, Chrétien's name, meaning literally "Christian from Troyes", might be a pen name moniker of a Jewish convert from Judaism to Christianity, also known as ''Crestien li Gois''.

Works

Chrétien's works include five major poems in rhyming eight-syllable couplets. Four of these are complete: '' Erec and Enide'' (); '' Cligès'' (); '' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion''; and '' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart'', the latter two written simultaneously between 1177 and 1181. ''Yvain'' is generally considered Chrétien's most masterful work. The last romance commonly attributed to Chrétien, '' Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', was written between 1181 and 1190, but left unfinished. It is dedicated to Philip, Count of Flanders, to whom Chrétien may have been attached in his last years. He finished only 9,000 lines of the work, but four successors of varying talents added 54,000 additional lines in what are known as the Four Continuations.Grigsby, John L. (1991). "Continuations of ''Perceval''". In Norris J. Lacy, ''The New Arthurian Encyclopedia'', pp. 99–100. New York: Garland. . Similarly, the last thousand lines of ''Lancelot'' were written by Godefroi de Leigni, apparently by arrangement with Chrétien. In the case of ''Perceval'', one continuer says the poet's death prevented him from completing the work; in the case of ''Lancelot'', no reason is given. This has not stopped speculation that Chrétien did not approve of ''Lancelot''s adulterous subject (in which case he seems unlikely to have invented Lancelot).

There are also several lesser works, not all of which can be securely ascribed to Chrétien. '' Philomela'' is the only one of his four poems based on Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' that has survived. Two short-lyric chansons on the subject of love are also very likely his, but the attribution of the pious romance ''Guillaume d'Angleterre'' to him is now widely doubted. It has also been suggested that Chrétien might be the author of two short verse romances titled ''Le Chevalier à l'épée'' and '' La Mule sans frein'', but this theory has not found much support. Chrétien names his treatments of Ovid in the introduction to ''Cligès'', where he also mentions his work about King Mark and Iseult. The latter is presumably related to the legend of Tristan and Iseult, though Tristan is not named. Chrétien's take on Tristan has not survived, though in the introduction of Cligès, Chrétien himself says that his treatment of Tristan was not well received, possibly explaining why it does not survive. Chrétien's works are written in vernacular Old French

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