Thirteenth-century sources use the term chansons
de toile (or occasionally chansons d’histoire), or
“spinning songs,” to refer to a small but distinct
group of French poems that present brief narratives with female protagonists, often a noble lady
mourning the absence of her knightly lover. These
short poems are memorable for their ability to create a scene with a few vivid images and for their
lively dialogue.
These songs usually begin by naming the heroine—Bele Doette, for example, or Bele Yolande.
Then the poem describes what the heroine is
doing—it may be spinning or embroidering, it
might be sitting alone in a tower window, it might
be reading. But from this standard beginning, a
number of different kinds of narratives might
ensue. In Bele Doette’s song, for example, the protagonist hears of her lover’s death and ends by becoming a nun at Saint-Pol. Bele Yolande, on the
other hand, gives herself to her lover at the end of
her song, and we are told:
fair Yolande clings to him with kisses,
and in France’s sport she pins him fast.
(Dronke 1996, 98)
These songs consist of several short stanzas
united by a single rhyme and separated by a substantial refrain. In “Fair Yolande,” for example,
there are six four-line stanzas and a two-line
rhyming refrain in Yolande’s own voice that translates “ ‘God, how the name of love is sweet: I never
thought it would bring me grief!’ ” (Dronke 1996,
97).
Altogether there are 20 extant chansons de toile,
most of which are anonymous. Nine of these appear in one chansonnier (or songbook manuscript)
attached to St. Germain-dez-Pres. Six songs have
survived because they were included in longer
works—five of these in one text, the Roman de
Guillaume de Dole (ca. 1210) by Jean Renart. The
other five poems are attributed to the 13th-century
poet Andefroi le Bastart.
It has been suggested that all of the anonymous
chansons de toile are the work of a single 13th-century poet (perhaps Andefroi himself). But there are
some significant differences between the poems attributed to Andefroi and the other lyrics: Musically,
the anonymous lyrics are in a minor mode while
Andefroi’s are in a major. Andefroi’s poems use 12-
syllable lines while the anonymous poems generally
use much shorter lines, sometimes six or eight syllables. Andefroi’s songs also usually have more stanzas
than the typical anonymous chansons de toile. It
seems likely that the anonymous poems are much
earlier than Andefroi’s—most likely 12th century at
the latest, and that Andefroi’s poems are a revival
and reworking of the earlier genre.
Bibliography
Dronke, Peter. The Medieval Lyric. 3rd ed. Cambridge, U.K.: Brewer, 1996.
Lewis, C. B. “The Origin of the Weaving Songs and
the Theme of the Girl at the Fountain,” PMLA 37
(1922): 141–181.
Tischler, Hans, ed. Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies:
Complete Comparative Edition. Neuhausen, Germany: Hänssler-Verlag, 1997.