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According to tradition, all the purana were

composed by the sage Vyasa, to whom is attributed

the epic of Indian literature, the MAHABHARATA. The

puranas were compiled and recited over centuries,

perhaps from as early as the first century to as late

as 1400. Each purana is essentially a long poem

composed in two-line stanzas called slokas. In con-

tent, they use short stories and dialogue between

gurus and students to explain concepts contained

in the Vedas, the oldest and most sacred Hindu

scriptures. Strictly speaking, a purana should ad-

dress five subjects: the first stage of the creation of

the universe (sarga), the second stage of creation

(pratisarga, or visarga), genealogies of kings and

gods (vamsa), the reigns of the Manus (manvan-

taras), and the histories of the solar and lunar dy-

nasties.

In practice, each purana is structurally unique

and the content varies widely, covering a breath-

taking scope of theology and philosophy. None are

brief, though the lengths also vary. The Vishnu Pu-

rana, sometimes thought to be the oldest of the

puranas, is called the Puranatna, or Gem of the Pu-

ranas, as it most conforms to the specified subjects.

It contains 23,000 verses or slokas. The Bhagavata

Purana, sometimes called the Srimad Bhagavatam,

contains perhaps the most widely translated and

the most-quoted writings on Hindu spirituality.

Also dedicated to Vishnu, this purana most likely

took shape between the first half of the sixth cen-

tury and the second half of the eighth. It contains

18,000 verses.

Like the BHAGAVAD GITA, the purana are con-

cerned with devotion to God but, due to their nar-

rative style and poetic beauty, are accessible to

laypeople. Together they form a substantial contri-

bution to the development of Hindu thought.

An English Version of the Purana

Bhagavata Purana. Translated by G. V. Tagare. Co-

lumbia, Mo.: South Asia Books, 1989.

Works about the Purana

Brown, Cheever MacKenzie. The Triumph of the God-

dess. New York: State University of New York

Press, 1990.

Winternitz, Maurice. History of Indian Literature: In-

troduction, Veda, Epics, Puranas and Tantras. Co-

lumbia, Mo.: South Asia Books, 1981.

purana 251

252

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Qu Elegies (Ch’u Elegies, Chu Ci, Ch’u

Tz‘u, Songs of Ch’u, Elegies of Ch’u,

Songs of the South)

(fourth century B.C.)

collection of verses

The Qu Elegies is a great collection of Chinese

poems second only to the renowned BOOK OF

SONGS. This collection of verses records the leg-

ends, myths, religious philosophy, and social com-

mentaries of the tumultuous Warring States

period (403–221 B.C.). when imperial power broke

down and rival feudal states fought among one an-

other almost constantly.

The most important of these songs was attrib-

uted to QU YUAN, who is generally regarded as the

father of Chinese poetry. He composed the Lisao

(translated in English variously as The Lament, En-

countering Sorrow, or A Song on the Sorrows of De-

parture), which in 375 lines relates the poetic

account of a man’s spiritual journey from birth to

death. The poem’s somber mood and melancholy

reflect the poet’s disillusionment and the rejection

he felt after his master, the emperor, betrayed him.

Several major themes are represented in the col-

lection of songs, the foremost being the theme of

quest. A number of the elegies are religious texts

that relate the story of a shaman who embarks on

a spiritual journey to the supernatural realm. For

instance, in Nine Songs (Jiuge [Chiu-ko]), the protag-

onist is a religious figure who goes in search of gods

and goddesses who may or may not show them-

selves. A similar theme is explored in another song,

The Far-off Journey (Yuanyu), in which the main

character encounters and interacts with many deities

along his circular pilgrimage, which culminates in

his achieving his goal in the center of the cosmos.

Lisao also contains strong imagery of the poet’s

quest for virtue or for a virtuous person to guide

him on his path. His quest proves fruitless, ending

in his eventual decision to seek solace in death by

drowning himself in the river. This image com-

bines the poet’s quest with another significant

theme of the poem: Nature’s reflection of the

human condition, especially the subjection of hu-

mans to the forces of fate, or predestination. As the

writer Richard Strassberg points out in his intro-

duction to Inscribed Landscapes, Qu Yuan “in the

end, was unable to view Nature as a mirror of per-

sonal virtue, a scene of transformation, or a sooth-

ing refuge. The environments he visited prove to

be merely extensions of his anguished sorrow and

feelings of misunderstanding.”

The literary styles of the elegies continue to ex-

plore the relevance of nature. The general feature of

the elegies or “parallel prose”(bianwen or pianwen)

is the pervasive use of couplets of four or six char-

acters that maintain metrical symmetry. The key

rhetorical device used is the prevalent imagery of

polarities or binary opposites, such as the moun-

tain and water (or landscape) (shansui) imagery,

heaven and earth, and yin and yang (the dual, or

opposing nature of things). An example of this is

the asymmetry of beauty and pestilence repre-

sented in the reference to flowers and weeds in the

Lisao. The poet, Qu Yuan, laments, “I grieve that

fragrant flowers grow amidst patches of weeds.”

Another important poem in the Qu Elegies is

the Tian Wen (Tien Wen) or Heavenly Questions.

This poem is comprised of rhymed riddles and

questions regarding the creation of the universe

and China’s early history. Most of the questions re-

main unanswered except for a few, which allude to

answers derived from earlier oral traditions. Al-

though Tian Wen may appear to be a rather bewil-

dering work, it contains important information on

the myths and early beliefs of Chinese society in

the Warring States and earlier periods.

The Qu Elegies’s expansion of the more restric-

tive four-syllabic verse form of the Book of Songs

greatly influenced the development of later forms

of writing in China. It is deemed to have had con-

siderable impact, for example, on the prose form of

fu poetry and the five-syllabic verse form of the

shih poetry of the Han dynasty (206

B.C.–A.D. 220).

In addition to the Book of Songs, the Qu Elegies

serves as one of the best collections of vernacular

literature in China and has served as a model of

poetry and inspiration for many authors writing

both inside and outside of the Chinese tradition.

An English Version of the Qu Elegies

Ch’u Tz’u, The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese

Anthology. Translated by David Hawkes. Taipei:

Tun Huang Publications, 1968.

Works about the Qu Elegies

Strassburg, Richard E., trans. Inscribed Landscapes:

Travel Writing from Imperial China. Berkeley: Uni-

versity of California Press, 1994, 24, 199.

Wang,C.H.From Ritual to Allegory: Seven Essays in

Early Chinese Poetry. Hong Kong: Chinese Univer-

sity Press, 1988.

Waters, Geoffrey. Three Elegies of Ch’u: An Introduction

to the Traditional Interpretation of the Ch’u Tz’u.

Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.

Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus)

(ca. 40–ca. 96) rhetorician, nonfiction writer

Quintilian was born in Calagurris in Spain, a

Roman province that was then a center of culture

and the birthplace to other notables, including the

elder and younger SENECA and the poet MARTIAL.By

the year 57, Quintilian had traveled to Rome to

study rhetoric under Domitius Afer. Following

Afer’s death, he returned to Spain to teach and

practice law, but in 68 he came once more to Rome

in the company of Galba, who briefly became em-

peror in 69. In 71–72 he received a subsidy from

the emperor Vespasian, who supported education

in hopes of forming an educated citizenry. During

this time, from 68 to 88, he taught oratory in Rome

and became head of the first public school there

in 88. He retired two years later.

In 89 Quintilian published On the Causes of

Corrupted Eloquence, a work now lost. He began

writing his major work, On the Education of the

Orator, around 92 and published it in 94 or 95. In

this work, Quintilian synthesizes a lifetime of ex-

perience in speaking and writing and blends it into

a work that is at once a treatise on education, a

manual of rhetoric, a recommended reading list,

and a handbook of moral duties. For Quintilian,

excellence in oration could not be separated from

excellence of mind. Thus, his teaching emphasized

the development of moral principles as well as

artistic skill. In his own words, oratory is “the good

man speaking well.” (At this time girls could re-

ceive a basic education in grammar, but only

young men were allowed to study rhetoric, or the

uses of language and literature.)

Through its 12 books, On the Education of the

Orator charts a progression through the steps of

Quintilian 253

education. Quintilian’s recommended teaching

techniques include imitation, memorization,

translation, recitation, the study of history, and lit-

erary criticism, among others. The first two books

provide the foundation of the work by defining

rhetoric and outlining the purposes and uses of

education. For Quintilian, education was a lifelong

pursuit that required turning every life experience

to instructional advantage. The product of his ed-

ucational system was a student schooled in both

eloquence and ethical conduct, equipped to act

justly in public affairs.

Most innovative, and most appealing to the

modern reader, is the attention Quintilian pays to

the development of the small child. From the mo-

ment of birth, he maintains, care should be taken

to expose the child only to constructive influences

and moral teachers, even in the appointment of

the child’s nurse. Education can begin with music,

such as the lullabies sung to babies, since music

helps develop taste and a sense of aesthetic distinc-

tion. He recommends giving exercises such as puz-

zles and problems of geometry to small children to

stimulate their minds and hone their intellect. As

the child develops, the relationship between stu-

dent and teachers should be based on love. Quin-

tilian urges the pupil to love his tutors as much as

his studies, and he likewise instructs tutors to hold

their pupils in true affection. He further states that

if a student proves unequal to certain tasks, the

teacher should direct him toward exercises in

which he would have a chance of success. Most im-

portantly, the subjects of education should be var-

ied so as to create a well-rounded individual who

can excel in both physical and mental tasks, for

oration in particular required mastery of every

skill. “Eloquence is like a harp,” Quintilian wrote,

“not perfect unless with all its strings stretched, it

be in unison from the highest to the lowest note.”

Quintilian’s impact on the history of education

has been profound. Remarks by his contempo-

raries

JUVENAL and PLINY THE YOUNGER reveal the es-

teem in which he was held in his own time. The

Dialogue on Orators by TACITUS borrows from

Quintilian, and so do

JEROME’s instructions on the

education of Christian girls. Quintilian’s ideas en-

joyed great attention during the period of late an-

tiquity, and he was often quoted in the works of

French scholars during the 12th century. The hu-

manist movement looked again to Quintilian, with

scholars such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Martin Luther,

and Philip Melanchthon enlarging on his pro-

gram. In England, Ben Jonson and Alexander Pope

both read and praised Quintilian, and his tech-

niques remained part of the English system of ed-

ucation well into the 19th century. Even in the 20th

century, Quintilian is still recognized as a land-

mark figure in the history of education.

English Versions of Works by Quintilian

Quintilian: The Orator’s Education, Books 3–5. Edited

by Jeffrey Henderson and D. A. Russell. Cam-

bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Quintilian on the Teaching of Speaking and Writing.

Edited by James J. Murphy. Carbondale: Southern

Illinois University Press, 1987.

Works about Quintilian

Kennedy, George. Quintilian. New York: Twayne Pub-

lishers, 1969.

Tellegan-Couperus, Olga, ed. Quintilian & The Law:

The Art of Persuasion in Law & Politics. Leuven,

Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2003.

Qur’an

See KORAN.

Qu Yuan (Ch’ü Yüan) (332–296 B.C.) poet

Qu Yuan was born in Zhikui (Chih-K’uei), Hubei

(Hupeh) province, China, during the chaotic pe-

riod of the Warring States (403–221 B.C.), when the

authority of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty was decen-

tralized among seven rival feudal states. Qu was a

descendant of the royal family of Qu and later be-

came the Left Counselor of King Huai of Qu. He

belonged to the anti-Qin (Ch’in) party in the court,

254 Qur’an

which unfortunately went against his favor. Qu

Yuan was sent into exile twice by two different Qu

kings because he advised them not to continue

diplomatic relations with the court of the rival state

of Qin. For many years, he roamed from place and

place before finally drowning himself after learning

that the Qu dynasty had fallen to the Qin armies.

During his exile, Qu Yuan vented his grievances

through his poems, such as the Lisao, the most fa-

mous of his works. The longest of Qu Yuan’s lyri-

cal poems, the Lisao reveals his devotion to and

love of his country and his unyielding desire and

determination to persuade his erring kings to

avoid committing the gravest mistake by cultivat-

ing friendly relations with the treacherous Qin

state. Lisao is divided into three sections. The first

describes the ancestors, biographical details, and

poet’s desire to serve his king. A female character,

probably the poet’s sister, dominates the second

section, in which she tries to persuade the poet of

his foolhardiness. The final section contains a vivid

description of Qu Yuan’s imaginary pursuit of

hope and truth. The poem ends on a despondent

note as the poet laments:

Alas! All is over.

My fellow countrymen know me not

Why should I pine for my native land?

Since there is none to govern well with me.

I shall join Beng Xian’s abode.

It is this keenness of expression which makes the

Lisao a valuable document in the tradition of im-

portant Chinese literature, both as a poetic biogra-

phy and as a model of poetic style and sentiment.

English Versions of Works by Qu Yuan

Li Sao, A Poem on Relieving Sorrows. Translated by

Jerah Johnson. Miami: Olivant Press, 1959.

Tian Wen: A Chinese Book of Origins. Translated by

Stephen Field. New York: New Directions, 1986.

A Work about Qu Yuan

Hu, Patricia Pin-ching. “Poet of Man’s Ingratitude.”

In Random Talks on Classical Chinese Poetry. Hong

Kong: Join Sun Publishing Co., 1990.

Qu Yuan 255

256

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Ramayana

See VALMIKI, MAHARISHI.

Rig-Veda (ca. 1500–600 B.C.) sacred text,

poem

The oldest of the Vedas, the four books that make

up the Hindu scriptures, is the Rig-Veda. Along

with the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the

Atharva-Veda, the Rig-Veda sets out the creation

stories, the religious rituals, and the early prayers

of the Hindu religion.

The Vedas were created as part of the Brahmani-

cal tradition of the ancient Aryans, nomadic people

who settled in the Indus River valley between 3000

B.C. and 2000 B.C. Their religion was based on the use

of fire during sacrifices and the consumption of an

intoxicating drink called soma, made from a plant

that may be related to the mushroom known as “fly-

agaric.” The Aryan Brahmanical tradition also placed

a heavy emphasis on social order and served as a pre-

cursor to the later Hindu caste system.

The Rig-Veda contains 1,028 hymns, the earliest

of which were probably composed around 1500

B.C.

The hymns, or mantras, were recited by priests and

preserved through an oral tradition (see ORAL LITER-

ATURE/TRADITION) for hundreds of years. After 1000

B.C., the Rig-Veda was written down in Sanskrit,

making it the oldest work in the Indian tradition

and one of the oldest works of any kind in the

Indo-European language system. The Sanskrit

word veda means “knowledge.” Thus, the Rig-Veda

concerns knowledge through hymns to the gods.

The central figures of the Rig-Veda are Indra,

the god of thunder and battle; Agni, the god of fire;

Varuna, the god of truth and order; and soma, the

powerful intoxicating plant. Two other gods,

Vishnu and Shiva, although of lesser importance

in the Rig-Veda, later became two of the three most

important gods in the Hindu religion.

More than 200 of the Rig-Veda’s verses are de-

voted to Indra. He was the most popular god in the

Indo-Aryan pantheon and a devoted user of the

plant soma. His heroic exploits helped to create the

Indo-Aryan civilization. One of the most famous

sets of hymns tells of his destruction of the serpent

Vrtra, who had encompassed all the universe’s ele-

ments, including Water, the Sun, the Moon, the

heavens, and the earth, within his coils. By de-

stroying Vrtra, Indra released the elements that al-

lowed life to flourish.

The importance of Agni in the Rig-Veda lies in

his connection with fire and sacrifice. The early

Indo-Aryan religion was a fire cult, and as the god

of fire, Agni was worthy of many hymns of praise.

Agni served as a messenger between people and

gods. Through the use of fire sacrifice, the Indo-

Aryans were able to communicate with the gods

and ensure their health and protection.

Soma was an essential part of the Indo-Aryan re-

ligion. The plant is mentioned nearly 1,000 times in

the Rig-Veda, and the entire ninth book is devoted

to hymns praising it. The plant’s juice produced an

effect on its users that allowed them to achieve su-

perhuman tasks. Indra’s use of soma, for example,

allowed him to defeat Vrtra and other monsters

throughout the text. Soma was also praised in the

works of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran around the

same time that the Rig-Veda was written.

Varuna played the god of order and Truth (or

Rta), an extremely important role in the Indo-

Aryan religion. Varuna’s presence regulated the

universe and kept all things from falling into

chaos. He has often been portrayed as a moon god,

though his role is more accurately described as god

of the heavens, as well as of Truth. Though he held

a position of great importance in the early religion,

he was later eclipsed by Vishnu and Shiva in the

Hindu pantheon.

The Rig-Veda’s dual role as a sacred scripture

of the early Indo-Aryan fire cults and of the Hindu

religion have given it a place of the utmost impor-

tance in the history of religion and literature.

English Versions of the Rig-Veda

The Rig-Veda: An Anthology. Selected, Translated and

Annotated by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty. New

York: Penguin, 1981.

The Hymns of the Rig Veda, 3d ed., complete in two

volumes. Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith.

Benares, India: E. J. Lazarus and Co., 1920–26.

Works about the Rig-Veda

Gonda, Jan. Vedic Literature (Samhita and Brah-

manas). Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1975.

Hillebrandt, Alfred. Vedic Mythology. Translated by

Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma. Delhi: Motilal Ba-

narsidass Publishers, 1980.

romance, medieval (12th–14th centuries)

literary genre

In 12th-century France, the term romanz referred

to a work written in the vernacular literature

rather than in Latin, which was the language used

by scholars, lawmakers, the religious, and the rul-

ing class. First used to indicate a poem that related

historical facts, the term romance soon came to

designate a new literary genre. This genre did not

come about spontaneously; rather, it found its be-

ginnings in ancient Greek, Arabic, and Celtic liter-

atures. For example, medieval society was familiar

with the triumph of love in

CALLIMACHUS’s works as

well as Celtic stories, such as the romance of

TRIS

TAN AND ISEULT. Medieval romances were also influ-

enced by Arabic songs, brought into contact with

Western culture through the CRUSADES, and by the

political history of the province of Aquitaine in

present-day France. William of Poitou, Duke of

Aquitaine, who fought in the First Crusade, was

also the earliest recorded TROUBADOUR. His grand-

daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine, became Queen of

France and then Queen of England, carrying to

both courts a new tradition of love poetry that

evolved into a code of CHIVALRY and COURTLY LOVE.

From 1150 until the end of the 14th century, the

romance was the most popular secular genre in the

literature of England and France. Scholars later

tried to organize the immense proliferation and

colorful variety of texts by organizing them into

three main areas: the Matter of Britain, which in-

volves the adventures of King Arthur and his

knights; the Matter of Charlemagne, which in-

cludes the stories of Roland; and the Matter of

Rome, which includes tales about Alexander the

Great and the fall of Troy. Arthur, Alexander, and

Roland all take their place among the favorite he-

roes of medieval romances. Even those narratives

that are not related to these cycles share certain

characteristics with the most famous and influen-

tial of the romance tales.

The first romance distinguishable as such may

be the

SONG OF ROLAND, which was composed in the

latter half of the 11th century. Some scholars

romance, medieval 257

maintain that the Song of Roland is still an example

of the older heroic poetry similar to the Anglo-

Saxon BEOWULF or the EPICs of ancient Greece and

Rome. In addition, the Romance of Thebes, The Ro-

mance of Aeneas, and The Romance of Troy, written

between 1150 and 1165, all deal with the matter of

Rome, retelling the epic stories in romance form.

During these same years, Béroul wrote his Tristan

and CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES his Arthurian Romances,

which forever shaped the way these characters were

known and continue to be perceived. Later writers

also added to the treasury of stories, among them

MARIE DE FRANCE and Robert de Boron, whose verse

romances develop the story of the HOLY GRAIL and

add to the Arthurian romances.Around 1225, GUIL-

LAUME DE LORRIS began an elaborate allegorical

poem called The ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, which was

continued later by JEAN DE MEUN and which left an

enduring stamp on the romance genre and the way

love was poetically treated in the Western world.

From its roots in France, the romance tradition

spread to Italy, England, Germany, the Nether-

lands, Portugal, Greece, and Spain. Two of the

most popular Spanish romances, The Book of Apol-

lonius and The Book of Alexander, composed be-

tween 1220 and 1240, return to the Matter of

Rome. In England the most popular romances

dealt with the legends of King Arthur, such as Sir

Gawain and the Green Knight or Sir Thomas Mal-

ory’s The Death of Arthur. In Germany, the ro-

mances of

WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH and

GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG also contributed to the

Matter of Britain, and the most celebrated authors

of Italian romances—Boiardo, Ariosto, and

Torquato Tasso—all used characters from the

Roland tradition.

Critical Analysis

As a genre, the medieval romance is distinct from

the chronicle, which purported to relate a true his-

tory. The romance is also quite different from epics

or the earlier heroic poetry. David Staines, who

translated the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de

Troyes, puts it thus: “Traditionally, the epic and

the chronicle depict a nation; their characters are

the embodiment of a national destiny; their ulti-

mate concern is the nation itself. By contrast, the

romance depicts the individual.” Scholar Foster

Guyer also observes that the romance introduced

several innovations into the literature: “important

feminine roles, a love element in narrative form, a

refined style, and an entirely new kind of plot.”

All romances share certain motifs, which

scholar John Stevens identifies as the following: the

hero’s sense of a vocation or quest; the presenta-

tion of the heroine as distant, beautiful, and desir-

able; the essential isolation of the hero and his

experience; and the feeling of involvement in a

mystery. Romances also frequently feature magic

elements or supernatural experiences.

Medieval romances were popular because they

focused their attention not on national character

but on human character. As Terence McCarthy says,

“Romance takes us close to its heroes; we share

their thoughts and see into their hearts.” The ro-

mance genre also explored in a new way the treat-

ment of women in the medieval world. Scholar

Rosamund Allen observes that in literature prior

to romances, “Women were notoriously excluded

from positions of authority in medieval society.”

For this reason, women in literature frequently ap-

peared “in the archetypal roles of mother, sister,

daughter, wife and queen-consort”; in short, female

characters were defined by their relationship to

men. On the surface, medieval romances seemed to

elevate women by putting them in positions of

power and worshipping them for their grace and

beauty. Upon closer investigation, however, femi-

nist scholars observe that by making them the focus

of the male quest, trapping them in towers or pris-

ons, and valuing them for beauty or wealth rather

than for personality or achievements, medieval ro-

mances simply continued to treat women as pow-

erless objects in stories dominated by men.

Almost as soon as it was established, the roman-

tic tradition began to investigate and even parody

itself. Romances frequently use humor to describe

situations in which the hero finds himself, and even

moments that the author intended to be serious

and tragic may appear funny to modern eyes in

258 romance, medieval

their extravagant detail and sensational excess. Cer-

tain authors of the later MIDDLE AGES questioned the

romance with particular skill. In his Troilus and

Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer examines the clash be-

tween the epic and romance genres that inevitably

happens when an ancient tale is recast in romance

form. Ariosto draws away from the romantic tradi-

tion in his Orlando Furioso, offering a comic treat-

ment of the repetitive and formulaic nature of

romance episodes and devices. And Don Quixote

(1605), by Miguel de Cervantes, is frequently seen

as the last great parody and the final break with ro-

mance as a leading medieval literary genre.

Still, romantic conventions persisted in litera-

ture. In the English tradition, many of William

Shakespeare’s plays stage a return to romance, but

with remarkably more complex psychological de-

tail. The Renaissance figures Sir Philip Sidney and

Edmund Spenser revived elements of the medieval

romance in Arcadia and The Faerie Queene, re-

spectively, but in these works the once-viable char-

acteristics of the romance appear archaic and even

quaint. In its farthest reaches, however, the me-

dieval romance is considered the precursor to the

modern novel. Even the contemporary definition

of romance inherits some qualities of its older

counterparts. In modern terms, a romance is in-

evitably a love story and typically involves the

quest of a hero or heroine whose experiences and

emotions are the main focus of the tale; thus, this

most popular genre of secular medieval literature

permanently affected the way literature is received

in the modern world.

English Versions of Medieval Romances

Béroul. The Romance of Tristan. Translated by Alan S.

Fedrick. New York: Viking Press, 1978.

Boron, Robert de. Merlin and the Grail. Translated by

Nigel Bryant. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2001.

Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Translated

by D. D. R. Owen. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle,

1997.

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The Romance

of the Rose. Translated by Charles Dahlberg.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Marie de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Tra ns -

lated by Glyn Burgess. New York: Penguin, 1999.

The Song of Roland. Translated by Glyn Burgess. New

York: Penguin, 1990.

Works about Medieval Romance

Barron,W.R.J.English Medieval Romance. New York:

Longman, 1987.

Krueger, Roberta L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to

Medieval Romance. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge

University Press, 2000.

Mills, Maldwyn, Jennifer Fellows and Carol M. Meale.

Romance in Medieval England. Cambridge, U.K.:

D. S. Brewer, 1991.

Romance of the Rose (ca. 1225–1277)

allegorical poem

The Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) is

one of the most famous and influential courtly

love poems of the MIDDLE AGES. Written by two

French authors, GUILLAUME DE LORRIS and JEAN DE

MEUN, Romance of the Rose is an allegory in which

emotions and abstract ideas such as Reason and

Nature are personified by the story’s characters.

The story tells how a young man in courtly so-

ciety (represented in the literal story by a garden)

seeks to win a young woman’s love (represented

by a rose). The man’s attempt to seduce the woman

is aided by her friendliness (or Fair Welcome), and

by her passion (Venus), and repulsed at other mo-

ments by her haughtiness (as represented by the

character of Dangier).

According to author C. S. Lewis, Romance of the

Rose is “a love story of considerable subtlety and

truth” in which the poets create the psychology of

their characters by constructing an imaginary

world in which the lovers’ passions move and im-

press themselves vividly on the reader’s mind.

Guillaume de Lorris, about whom almost noth-

ing is known, composed the first 4,000 lines of the

poem. After his death, the work’s popularity led

more than one writer to try to complete it. A first,

very short anonymous conclusion was probably

written shortly after the original, but much more

Romance of the Rose 259

famous is the long continuation and conclusion by

Jean de Meun.

Guillaume’s major inspiration was the ideology

and poetry of CHIVALRY and courtly love in which

the lady plays the dominant role, kindly granting

her favors or not, and the lover strives to please

her in all things and be worthy of her. This type of

love was an innovation and in direct contrast with

the current idea of marriage in which the husband

was expected to have complete control and domi-

nation over his wife. Guillaume and Jean de Meun

also recognized that the love they were portraying

contradicted the medieval ascetic tradition that

condemned passion for its ability to destroy a per-

son’s reason; hence the appearance of Reason,

whose character argues in vain against love.

Jean de Meun’s sources included the works of

Alan of Lille, a 12th-century poet of the school of

Chartres, who wrote philosophical poetry about na-

ture and creation. His other sources included Greek

and Roman mythology (see MYTHOLOGY, GREEK AND

ROMAN) and the allegorical traditions found in the

BIBLE and in the works of ancient poets.

Critical Analysis

Romance of the Rose begins with the narrator

dreaming of entering the beautiful Garden of De-

light by permission of the gatekeeper Idleness. As he

explores the garden, he looks into a well, where he

sees two crystal stones and, reflected in them, a Rose

growing a little way off. The God of Love shoots him

with his arrows, and he falls in love and tries to

reach the Rose. But he must first surrender to the

God of Love, whom he takes as his lord, saying:

This heart is yours; it is no longer mine;

For good or ill it does as you command.

With the help of the lady’s initial friendliness

(Fair Welcome), the Lover tries to win the Rose’s

love. He grows too bold and is soon rebuffed by

her Dangier. At this point, Reason, a beautiful

woman, urges him to give up his quest.

Nothing but foolishness is this disease

called Love; ’twere better if it were folly

named.

The Lover rebuffs Reason and perseveres. An-

other character, Friend, who is already experienced

in the ways of love, advises him on how to placate

Dangier. The Lover again makes headway and soon

asks if he can kiss the Rose. Fair Welcome at first

demurs:

. . . So help me God, dear friend,

If Chastity did not so frown on me,

I’d not deny you; but I am afraid

Of her and would not act against her will.

At Venus’s (desire’s) arrival, however, Fair Wel-

come capitulates, and the lover kisses the Rose.

Malebouche (Evil Mouths or gossip) spreads the

news, and Jealousy builds a fortress around the Rose

and imprisons Fair Welcome in its tower. The lover

laments his defeat. It is at this point that Guillaume

de Lorris’s story ends and Jean de Meun’s begins.

Sarah Kay describes Jean’s conclusion, which is

more than four times longer than Guillaume’s be-

ginning, as “less an expansion than an explosion

of the original Rose.” Around the framework of

the simple story of the Lover and the Rose, Jean

weaves vast discourses on dozens of subjects, in-

cluding free will and predestination, the planets,

and hypocritical religions. He displays a more

critical and cynical attitude toward idealized

courtly love and includes a number of satirical

passages on women and relations between the

sexes. One of the most famous characters, Vekke,

the old woman who guards Fair Welcome, speaks

at length about how women should take many

lovers, cheat on them, and get expensive presents

from them.

Jean de Meun’s conclusion tells how the Lover

argues again with Reason, who explains that those

who engage in love for pleasure alone, without the

desire to procreate, are wrong. The God of Love

agrees to help the Lover, calling on his forces to

storm the castle where the Rose is kept prisoner.

They are defeated and finally call on Venus.

260 Romance of the Rose