''Aucassin et Nicolette'' (12th or 13th century) is an anonymous

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

French fictional story. It is the unique example of a ''chantefable'', literally, a "sung story", a combination of

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and verse (similar to a ''

prosimetrum A ''prosimetrum'' (plural ''prosimetra'') is a poetic composition which exploits a combination of prose (''prosa'') and verse (''metrum'');Braund, Susanna. Prosimetrum. In Cancil, Hubert, and Helmuth Schneider, eds. ''Brill's New Pauly''. Brill O ...

'').

History

The work probably dates from the late 12th or early 13th century, and is known from only one surviving

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

, discovered in 1752 by medievalist

Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (June 1697 – 1 March 1781) was a French historian, classicist, philologist and lexicographer. Biography From an ancient family, his father Edme had been gentleman of the bedchamber to the Philip I, ...

( BnF, Fonds Français 2168).Karl Uitti. "Aucassin et Nicolette" in ''

Dictionary of the Middle Ages The ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989. It was first conceived and started in 1975 with American medieval historian Jos ...

'', Vol. 1, pg. 642–644 Stylistically, the ''chantefable'' combines elements of many Old French genres, such as the ''chanson de geste'' (e.g., ''

The Song of Roland The ''Song of Roland'' () is an 11th-century based on the deeds of the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in AD 778, during the reign of the Emperor Charlemagne. It is the oldest surviving major work of French li ...

''), lyric poems, and courtly novels—literary forms already well-established by the 12th century. ''Aucassin et Nicolette'' is the only known chantefable, the term itself having been derived from the story's concluding lines: "No cantefable prent fin" ("Our chantefable is drawing to a close").

Plot summary

The story begins with a song which serves as prologue; and then prose takes up the narrative. It recounts the tale of Aucassin, son of Count Garin of Beaucaire, who so loved Nicolette, a

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

maiden, who had been sold to the Viscount of Beaucaire, baptized and adopted by him, that he had forsaken knighthood and chivalry and even refused to defend his father's territories from enemies. Accordingly, his father ordered the Viscount to send Nicolette away, but instead the Viscount locked her in a tower of his palace. Aucassin is imprisoned by his father to prevent him from going after his beloved Nicolette. But Nicolette escapes, hears Aucassin lamenting in his cell, and comforts him with sweet words. She flees to the forest outside the gates, and there, in order to test Aucassin's fidelity, builds a rustic home to await his arrival. When he is released from prison Aucassin hears from shepherd lads of Nicolette's hiding-place, and seeks her bower. The lovers, united, resolve to leave the country. They board a ship and are driven to the (fictional) kingdom of "Torelore", whose king they find in child-bed while the queen is with the army. After a three years' stay in Torelore they are captured by Saracen pirates and separated. The wind blows Aucassin's boat back to Beaucaire - where he succeeds to Garin's estate. Meanwhile another wind carries Nicolette to "Cartage" (perhaps a play on

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

or Cartagena). The sight of the city reminds her that she is the daughter of its king. She informs the king and soon it is planned that she should marry a Saracen king. She avoids this by disguising herself as a minstrel. She then sets sail for Beaucaire to rejoin her beloved Aucassin. There, before Aucassin who does not immediately recognize her, she sings of her own adventures and the love between them. Finally, in due time she makes herself known to him, and the two marry. The story ends by saying that now the two have found (lasting) happiness the narrator has nothing left to say.

Major themes

Critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

s have seen the story as a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of such genres as the

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

, the

romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

, and the saint's life. "Few Old French genres escape parody in this concise literary encyclopedia." For example, the theme of distant love (''amor de lonh''), common in Provençal poetry, is reversed: the lady dresses up as a troubadour and seeks out her beloved man. Many of the scenes which seem outwardly comedic, such as the pregnant King (more gender reversal) or wars fought with cheese and apple projectiles (wars are usually fought over food, not with food), are further examples of flipping traditional literary tropes on their heads. Aucassin's speech that he would prefer

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

because hell's inmates are likely to be more entertaining is a play on Saints Lives. Even the names are at odds: "Aucassin" may suggest ''al-Kassim'' (sharer) or ''al-Ghassan'' (youth), sounding more Saracen than the very Christian "Nicolette". The story and manuscript derive from the bourgeois Arras region in Picardy, not from the aristocratic and courtly environs of Paris. It satirizes courtly love, turning it upside down. The story was included in Mortimer J. Adler's ''

Gateway to the Great Books ''Gateway to the Great Books'' is a 10-volume collection of classic fiction and nonfiction literature edited by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins, with Clifton Fadiman credited as associate editor, that was published by Encyclopædia ...

'' (1962) collection, which called it one of the freshest and most delightful "springtime flowers of literature."

Later mentions

Dealt with in

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, Art critic, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of t ...

's work on "The Renaissance". The story is mentioned in the

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she ...

short story "The Age of Discretion". Scholars note that the story was reworked as the plot of ''

Starlight Starlight is the light emitted by stars. It typically refers to visible electromagnetic radiation from stars other than the Sun, observable from Earth at night, although a component of starlight is observable from Earth during daytime. Sunlig ...

'' ( French: ''Étoilette''), a French literary

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

penned by Marie-Madeleine de Lubert and included in her 1753 revision of

Henriette-Julie de Murat Henriette-Julie de Murat (1668 in Paris – 9 September 1716 in Château de la Buzardière) was an aristocratic French writer of the late 17th century, associated with the Baroque ''Précieuses'' movement, and one of the leading members of the ...

's novel,'' Les Lutins du château de Kernosy'' (The Sprites of Kernosy Castle, 1710). In 1975, the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

released a 15-minute animated film of the tale: ''Aucassin and Nicolette'', produced by Wolf Koenig and Guy Glover and directed and animated by the German filmmaker and animation pioneer

Lotte Reiniger Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the oldest surviving feature-length a ...

References

External links

''Aucassin and Nicolette''
downloadable new English translation by Katharine Margot Toohey (2017).
''Aucassin and Nicolette''
translation and introduction by

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

(1887). An unauthorized fine press edition by Thomas Bird Mosher "the prince of pirates", via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

(scanned book) *
''Aucassin et Nicolette''
translated by Eugène Mason (2001). , translated by Andrew Lang (1887) , translated by Francis William Bourdillon (1908)

with its medieval music from the unique manuscript and miniatures from the St Petersburg ''Li Livres dou Tresor'']
''Aucassin and Nicolette''
1929 edition by Mario Roques (French language) {{Authority control Medieval French literature Courtly love 12th-century books 13th-century books