The Romance of the Rose, Part 1

Let's talk about the most popular secular literary work in the Middle Ages. More manuscripts have survived of the Roman de la Rose than just about any other non-religious work. It has a few other notable aspects. One is its length: 21,782 lines! The other is that it is an unintended collaboration by two men who never met.

Guillaume de Lorris (c.1200 - c.1240) was a French scholar and poet who wrote 4,058 lines of a romantic poem called the Roman de la Rose c.1230. That is all we know about him; we would know even less if not for Jean de Meun. Jean de Meun (c.1240 - c.1305) was a Parisian writer who picked up Guillaume's work and added 17,724 lines. The only reason we know the name "Guillaume de Lorris" is that Jean de Meun names him as the man who started the poem that de Meun continued.

"Continued" should not be construed to mean "carried on in the same vein as the original." Guillaume's section takes place in a walled garden, a stereotypical locus amoenus ("pleasant place") for medieval lovers. The narrator describes a dream he had as a young man, finding the garden with carvings on the outside of the wall of women representing vices such as Cruelty, Covetousness, and Avarice.

When I the age of twenty had attained –
The age when Love controls a young man’s heart –
As I was wont, one night I went to bed
And soundly slept. But there came a dream
Which much delighted me, it was so sweet...

Inside the garden, however, he finds a different situation. A beautiful woman named Idleness introduces him to a young man named Pleasure, who in turn introduces the narrator to Love, Joy, Courtesy, and Pleasant Looks. After spending some time with them, the narrator goes for a walk, unaware that he is being stalked by Love. He comes to a pool in which he glimpses a beautiful rose. Just then, Love shoots him with five arrows— Beauty, Simplicity, Courtesy, Company, and Fair Seeming—and then demands the narrator become a servant to Love.

The narrator's goal then is to pursue the rose (which represents a lady as well as female sexuality). Reason appears and tells the narrator to abandon his quest for the rose. Friend comforts the narrator, who goes back to kiss the rose, but Jealousy builds a castle around the rose to keep the narrator away.

It doesn't seem likely that that is where Guillaume meant his poem to end, but that is all we have from him. When Jean de Meun came across it and decided to add more, he changed the tone a bit (he also might have edited the original, so we cannot be certain we know exactly what Guillaume wrote). Tomorrow I'll tell you how he changed the direction and used it to criticize more than just the act of falling in love.

When a Love Affair Goes Public

The story of Abelard and Heloise—revealed through their own writings and love letters—have intrigued people since the 12th century. They not only reveal the details of their relationship and feelings toward each other, but they also discuss and analyze love and related topics in philosophical terms.

These long letters, it is assumed, were kept by Heloise at the Abbey of the Paraclete, founded by Abelard and conceded to her when her convent was expelled from its original home by Abbot Suger. Their contemporary, the English anecdotalist Walter Map, mentions their story. It is possible that the letters were read by others during the process of delivery.

Eventually, the originals were uncovered at the Abbey of the Paraclete and someone decided they should be read more widely. The earliest manuscript collections are from the later 13th century. Some scholars think that the wounding of the Grail King in Chrétien de Troyes was influenced by Abelard's situation.

Their love story makes it into Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose ("Romance of the Rose"). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales mentions Heloise in the Wife of Bath's prologue, referring to her husband's book of "wicked wives" in which is mentioned "Heloise, that was abbess not far from Paris."

A 1616 Latin translation in Paris led to several versions in different European languages and kept their story alive into the 18th and 19th centuries where its popularity really took off. They were considered tragic lovers—rebelling against the restrictions of their time and society—who were united in death. Their remains were taken from the Abbey of the Paraclete and re-interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, established by Napoleon and housing many famous French citizens.

Speaking of long writings about love, the reference to Jean de Meun's "part" of the Roman de la Rose needs explanation. I'll explain that, and what the Roman was, tomorrow.