Aucassin et Nicolette is the only surviving example
of the genre of the French chantefable, a medieval
tale told in alternating sections of prose and verse.
The word chantefable is from Old French and literally
means “(it) sings (it) recites.” The term may
have been coined by the author of Aucassin et Nicolette,
for he says in the work’s concluding lines,“No
chantefable prent fin” (“Our chantefable draws to
a close”). Nothing is known of the author of this
work except that he may have been a professional
minstrel from northeastern France, as the work is
written in this dialect.
Aucassin et Nicolette is a tale of adventure revolving
around the romance of Aucassin, the son
of the Count of Beaucaire, and Nicolette, a captive
Saracen woman recently converted to Christianity.
The work shares much in common with an earlier
French romance titled Floire et Blancheflor (ca.
1170): both works share common Moorish and
Greco-Byzantine sources and use similar themes of
separation and reunion (the lovers endure many
complications, including flight, capture, and shipwreck
before they are finally able to marry).
The author of Aucassin and Nicolette skillfully
depicts the ardor of the characters’ young love, yet
he also mocks the EPIC and romance forms by inverting
the roles of the two lovers.Nicolette is portrayed
as an intelligent, resourceful young woman
(in fact, she proves to be the daughter of the King
of Carthage) who disguises herself as a minstrel in
order to be reunited with her love. Aucassin, however,
is depicted as a pathetic lovesick swain:
He made his way to the palace
Climbed the step
And entered the chamber
Where he began to cry
And give vent to his grief
And mourn his beloved
He lacks initiative, is ungrateful to his parents, and
must ultimately be bribed to uphold his duties as
a knight. Only under the threat of death does he
rise to the task of defending his honor. Aucassin is
also shown to be a poor Christian when he states
he would prefer to be in hell with his love rather
than in heaven.
The verse and musical portions of the work are
considered to be more finely wrought than the
prose narrative, in which the author displays comparatively
less skill. The only surviving manuscript
of Aucassin et Nicolette is housed in France’s Bibliothèque
Nationale. It is valued for its mixture of
prose and verse, reversal of gender roles, and subtle
mocking of courtly fiction.
An English Version of Aucassin et Nicolette
Of Aucassin and Nicolette: A Translation in Prose and
Verse from the Old French. Translated by Laurence
Housman. New York: Dial Press, 1930.
Works about Aucassin et Nicolette
Cobby,Anne Elizabeth. Ambivalent Conventions: Formula
and Parody in Old French. Amsterdam:
Rodopi BV Editions, 1995.
Pensom, Roger. Aucassin et Nicolette: The Poetry of
Gender and Growing up in the French Middle Ages.
New York: Peter Lang, 1999.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence. “Aucassin and Nicolette.”
In Yale Book of American Verse. Edited by
Thomas Lounsbury.New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1912.