Guillaume de Lorris is the author of the first 4,000
lines of the French verse poem Le Roman de la Rose
(ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, ca. 1225–40), one of the
best-known love poems of the MIDDLE AGES. The remaining
18,000 lines were written by JEAN DE MEUN.
Nothing is known of De Lorris’s life, but scholars
speculate that he was most likely born in Lorris,
a small town near Orleans, France. Based on his
writing, he was probably an educated man, was familiar
with OVID’s Art of Love, and had an intimate
knowledge of court society and courtly love poetry
(see CHIVALRY AND COURTLY LOVE).
The Romance of the Rose is the story of a young
man who tries to win the love of a young woman,
personified as a rose. No one knows who the Rose
is. She may have been De Lorris’s beloved, his patroness,
or a fictional character. In any case, the
rose allegorically represents a beloved woman,
while the garden in which the rose grows represents
courtly life.
In the beginning of the poem, the poet suggests
that the story is autobiographical and based on a
dream that came true later in his life. It is, in
essence, an ideal vision of the nature of love, and
the poet prays:
That she for whom I write with favor look
Upon my work, for she so worthy is
Of love that well may she be called the Rose.
De Lorris died before completing the poem,
and despite the fact that Jean de Meun’s section
presents a more cynical view of love, Romance of
the Rose remains one of the greatest achievements
of courtly love poetry.
English Versions of a Work by
Guillaume de Lorris
The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and
Jean de Meun. Translated by Charles Dahlberg.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
The Romance of the Rose. Translated by Harry W.
Robbins. Edited by Charles W. Dunn. Syracuse,
N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2002.
A Work about Guillaume de Lorris
Luria, Maxwell. A Reader’s Guide to the Roman de la
Rose. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1982.