Marie de France

Marie de France
Marie de France
Twelfth-century French poetess

Catholic Encyclopedia. . 2006.

Marie de France
    Marie de France
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Marie de France
    A French poetess of the twelfth century. She has this trait in common with the other trouvères, that she had no biographer; at least no biography of her has come down to us, and it is mostly by inference that scholars have been able to gather the meagre information that we possess about her. In one of her verses, she tells us her name and that of her native country: Marie ai nun, si sui de France (Roquefort, "Poésies de Marie de France", II, p. 401). Her lays are dedicated to a King Henry, and her "Ysopet" to a Count William. Who were this King Henry, and this Count William? This question, which puzzled scholars for a long time, has been settled only recently by a careful philological study of her works. She was a native of Normandy and lived in the second half of the twelfth century, because she uses the pure Norman dialect of that time, and the two personages alluded to in her works were Henry II of England and his son William, Count of Salisbury. Marie was then a contemporary and, very likely, a habitual guest of the brilliant court of troubadours and Gascon knights who gathered in the castles of Anjou and Guyenne around Henry II and Queen Eleanor; a contemporary, too, of Chrétien de Troyes, who, about that time, was writing the adventures of Yvain, Erec and Lancelot for the court of Champagne. Marie's contributions to French literature consist of lays, the "Ysopet", and a romance published by Roquefort under the title, "Legend of the Purgatory of Saint Patrick".
    The lays, which number fifteen, belong to the Breton Cycle, or more accurately, to what might be termed the "love group" of that cycle. They are little poems in octosyllabic verses, in which are told the brave deeds of Breton knights for the sake of their lady-love. These little tales of love and knightly adventure show on the part of the writer a sensibility which is very rare among trouvères. The style is simple and graceful, the narrative clear and concise. The "Ysopet" is a collection of 103 fables translated into French from the English translation of Henry Beauclerc. In the "Purgatory of Saint Patrick" the author tells us of the adventures of an Irish knight who, in atonement for his sins, descends into a cavern where he witnesses the torments of the sinners and the happiness of the just. BEDIER, Les lais de Marie de France in Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris, 15 Oct., 1891); Histoire littéraire de la France, XXX (Paris, 1888); PARIS in Romania (Paris, 1872, 1907); ROQUEFORT, Poésies de Marie de France (Paris, 1820); WARNKE, Marie de France und die Anonymen lais (Coburg, 1892).
    P.J. MARIQUE
    Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • Marie de France — (* um 1135 in der Region Île de France; † um 1200 vermutlich in England) war eine französischsprachige Dichterin. Marie ist die erste bekannte Autorin der französischen Literatur, doch hat man keinerlei Informationen über ihre Person außer ihrer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • MARIE DE FRANCE — (1154 1189) Trois œuvres littéraires en français de la seconde moitié du XIIe siècle, un recueil de lais narratifs, un recueil de fables et une traduction du Purgatoire de saint Patrice sont signés du nom de Marie. S’agit il dans les trois cas de …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Marie de France —   [ma ri də frãs], französische Dichterin der 2. Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts, älteste namentlich bekannte französische Dichterin überhaupt. Einzelheiten über ihre Biographie und die Datierung ihrer Werke sind jedoch hypothetisch. Wahrscheinlich… …   Universal-Lexikon

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  • Marie de France — (spr. marih dĕ frangß), älteste franz. Dichterin, lebte in England in der zweiten Hälfte des 12. Jahrh., verfaßte epische Lais (neu hg. 1885), die Fabelsammlung »Ysopet« (neu hg. 1898) …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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