The Lais of Marie de France

While translators and editors Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby are certain that a female poet called Marie was writing in Britain and Northern France in the latter half of the 12th century, they hesitate to attribute The Lais of Marie de France to a single author. Instead, the fictitious name, Marie de France, was coined by Claude Fauchet in the 1581 Receuil de l’origin de la langue et poesie françoise. While Burgess and Busby cannot attribute the poems to any particular lady, they assume that the author or authors were educated young women who were familiar with Latin, English, and Old French. There is no conclusive evidence to attest to the author’s femininity; however, Burgess and Busby note that the Lais pay attention to the well-being of children and the sexual frustration of mal mariées— young women given to older men in dynastic marriages.

The tales featured in the following edited text were found in a 13th century British Library manuscript, which also contained writings in Latin and some fables in old French. The tales are presented in the order that they appear in in the manuscript, although this does not necessarily reflect the order in which they were written.