Adam de la Halle was one of the most important of
the French TROUVÈRES, as well as a very influential
playwright and composer. He was an important
innovator in secular theater, and his play Jeu de
Robin et Marion is sometimes called the first comic
opera because of its use of song and dance.
Adam was probably born in Arras in about
1240. He is sometimes called “Adam le Bossu,” or
“the Hunchback,” though he seems not to have had
that specific affliction. Perhaps it was a family
name referring to one of his ancestors. In any case
Adam belonged to the puy in Arras—the literary
fraternity charged with staging miracle plays,
which also sponsored poetic contests, in which he
seems to have taken part.
Adam is said to have been educated at the Cistercian Abbey of Vaucelles, after which he apparently went to Paris to continue his schooling—he
is often referred to as maistre, which would suggest
a university education. He probably returned to
Arras around 1270, and apparently as part of the
puy competitions wrote a number of jeux-partis (a
kind of TENSO or debate poem), many with the
poet Jehan Bretel, who died in 1272. At some point
in Arras he wrote Le Jeu de la feuillée (The play of
the greensward), a satirical look at his own life and
the citizens of Arras, including his wife, his father
(whom he depicts as a miser), and a drunken
monk who sells fake holy relics.
In about 1272, Adam entered the service of
Robert II, count of Artois. He accompanied Robert
on a number of campaigns, and one of his poems,
Le Congé (The leave-taking), conveys his sorrow at
having to leave his wife. It may have been written
in 1283, when Adam accompanied Robert to the
Angevin kingdom of Naples, where Robert journeyed to help his uncle, King Charles d’Anjou, in
the Sicilian war. Adam seems to have become
something of a favorite in Charles’s court, and he
composed a CHANSON DE GESTE, Le roi de Sicile, in
Charles’s honor, though only the opening of the
poem has survived. It is likely that Sicily is also
where Adam wrote his second important play, Le
Jeu de Robin et Marion (ca. 1285). This play is a
dramatized PASTOURELLE, telling the story of a
knight who tries to woo a country maiden. It includes Adam’s own lyrics set to what are probably
popular folk songs (though they may be Adam’s
own compositions) sung by the leading actors.
The conventional view is that Adam died in
1288. This is based on the testimony of a scribe
who calls himself Jehan Madus and claims to be
Adam’s nephew, and who in 1288 says that Adam is
deceased. However, it has been suggested that the
“Maistre Adam le Bosu,” who is mentioned as
being paid for entertaining at a royal feast in Westminster for the coronation of England’s King Edward II in 1307, is Adam de la Halle.
Adam is perhaps best known for his dramatic
works, but he wrote a variety of lyrics, including
chansons (see CANSO) and RONDEAUX or dance
songs. He is remembered as one of the most important musicians of his time: His chansons are all
written in the old-fashioned single melody settings, but his rondeaux are three-part polyphonic
compositions. It seems likely that Adam had
learned the new art of polyphony while studying at
Paris. Some two dozen manuscripts of his lyrics
survive, and it is a testament to Adam’s popularity
in his own time that one of these manuscripts is a
collected edition of his works, arranged by genres—the first such collection for any medieval lyricist—that is now in the National Library of Paris.
Bibliography
Adam de la Halle. The Lyrics and Melodies of Adam
de la Halle. Edited by Deborah Howard Nelson,
and Hendrik van der Werf. New York: Garland,
1985.
Goldin, Frederick, ed. and trans. Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères: An Anthology and a History.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973.
Huot, Sylvia. “Transformations of Lyric Voice in the
Songs, Motets, and Plays of Adam de la Halle,” Romanic Review 77 (1987): 148–164.
Marshall, J. H., ed. The Chansons of Adam de la Halle.
Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press,
1971.
Van Deusen, Nancy E. “The Paradox of Privacy in the
Love Songs of Adam de la Halle.” In The Cultural
Milieu of the Troubadours and Trouvères, 56–66.
Ottawa: Institute of Medieval Music, 1994.