,
II
THE LAI:; OF MARIE DE FRANCE
This exchange of identities--the king's public for the sen eschal's private-continues until the king and the wife make love on the seneschal's own bed; Eguitan h~s at this point gone further th:m ever berorc toward assuming the seneschal's identity. lJut in doing so, he 'exposes himself to maximum danger. The seneschal barges back into the chamber-not, presumably, because he suspects anything, but because he has been commanded by the king to be with him in prival'·. Th king, discover,'d in his ;l(!lIhery, ("(lIl1pklCS his as\illlibrioll .. f dll" ,·:nl(".d'll!·s idl"II,i,y wi,h a f~lI.oI I<-Ilp ill'o d'l" odwl'" 1111,. '::11': "I'I""I',;.'lill l : rill" ""'11"., la.oI ... .1".,,1. I": wrll. Mr.'lI\vllll,'. ,I... ·.r'If".I 1,.01 koll·. I IIf' wolr ,III", I .. f 11'11 ,11111 'lin ,1..11 fll,.oI'/i"1 1,,·/ "·.·."'"1'''"" ..I rI,,· I""I:-~ 1'1,1,1:, idrllllly ,"1 I1Il'l 1'1 ,"'1 III I""'" ". (I II •1111".1", II' III~ .11":111., rl.1' 1"111: td·/., 1'01' ,I.r /;11it ,i,,,1" ...,",,1,,\ IlrI... 01/,,",'(, by \I'lI<ln"";1I1: hilll~clf 10 dc:lth; 1,,", i", "1'1'''-'''.1 ,,' rI,r ~C"lIr\( lilli's ,klil)("r:lle ;lct of jud~III(~lIt, J';'1 i, Ill' j.l'·II"oI.) The d"crCM: irony of L''1w'tan is therefore d':11 rI,e king's escape from the responsibilities of his public iclclltily, already clear when the lai begins, is paralleled, as the lui unfolds, by a similar escape into the private identity of the seneschal, and that, when the process is complete, the king has destroyed himself physically as well as metaphysically. The tight and multileve!ed construction of Equitan would seem to belie, at least in part, the contention by some critics that it is :m early and inferior work of Marie. In its own fashion, it is a highly accomplished poem. l. Mickel, in his essay on irony <see bibliography}, explore' the impli". tions of the huntin!; metaphor for Ihis Jai.
.,
'Ie jfre~ne
(The Ash Tree)
I shall tell you the lai of Le Fresne
according to the story as I know it,
In olden days there lived in Brittany
two knights who were neighbors;
both w('re rich men,
b,llY.. :In.l wOllhy klligh,~,
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Ilcr husbanu was absolutely delighted;
in his joy at the event
he sent word to his good neighbor
15 that his wife had had two sonshe had that many more children now. He would send one to him to raise, and name the child after him. The rich neighbor was sitting down to eat 20 when the messenger arrived; he knelt before the high table to announce his news. The lord thanked God for it and rewarded him with a fine horse. 25 The knight's wife laughed (she was seated next to him at dinner) because she was deceitful and proud" \ evil-tongued anQ elJvious. ~ She spoke very foolishly, , 30 saying, for all her household to hear, "So help me God, I can't imagine where this worthy man got such advice to announce to my lord, to his own shame and dishonor, \"l'
~r ~
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73
LLFrt';n~'
THE LA IS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
35 that his wife has had twin sons. Both he and she are disgraced by this; we k lOW the truth of the matter all too well; it never was and never will be possi'lle for such a thing to happen 1 40 that;1 woman could have I wo : 11IIS in one hirth ""In'. Iwo 1111"11 Iud lain with hn." If'II".. I',I,",dlt,-.,,.lyal h'-I, "1'1" II I"" I", I"rto ,Iy I", wh,,, ,It, .. ,,,I I',
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;llltll,ec:lrne known throughout I3rill:lI1Y.
The slanderous wife was hated for it, :lnd later made to suffer for it. 55 Every woman who heard about it, rich or poor, hated her. The messenger who had brought the news went home and told his lord everything. When he heard the messenger's report, 60 he became so sad he didn't know what to do, He hated his worthy wife because of it, strongly suspected her, and kept her under strict guard, even though she didn't deserve it. 65 ~ The wife who had spoken so evilly became pregnant herself that same year, :Ind was carrying twins I
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now her neighbor has her vengeance. She carried them until her time came; then she gave birth to two daughters; she wa and terril>ly sad about the situ;)t ion. She lamented hiltnly to hC'rsdf: "A 1.1:"," \11(' s:liol, "W"-II ,1.,.111 dfl ('llllt'VI" 1:1'1 lilly "fill'" filii pi rld'd 1'111 III
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the bdy had raisecl ancl taken care of her) w:,', vrlY :111 ... Ill'dlo lan,
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11,,11,,1,11111111, '"I1f.I IlIy,rlf wl"'11 I ,.1.111.1"'1"11 :111 wlJIlI,lIlkin.1. Didll'l I ',~IY it never h.,ppened at !cast, we've never seen it happen that a woman could have twins unless she had lain with two men? Now that I have twins, it seems to me " my words have come back to haunt me. ;'> Whoevcr slandcrs another . \ never knows when it will rebound on him; he may speak badly about someone. _who's more deserving of praise than he. Now, to keep from being disgraced, , I'll have to kill one of my children! (" I'd rather mak5;_t~at up to God than live in shame and dishonor." Those of her household who were in the bedc comforted her and said they wouldn't allow her to do it; ·killi~g somebody was no joke. ~ The lady had an attendant who was of noble birth;' ...~·t
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This girl heard her mistress crying,
bemoaning her situation;
1째5 it bothered her terribly. She came and comforted her: "My lady," she said, "it's not worth carrying on so. Stop grieving-that's the thing to do. Give me one of the babies; lIO I'll take care of her for you,
so that you won't be disgraced;
you'll never s,:e the child again.
I'll :Ihandon her at a conv('nt,
to which I'll carry her s:lfc alld SOU lid.
II Somc good pcrSC111 will find her,
ancl, God willill~. hc'lI r:lisc her."
The lady heard what she said;
she W:lS delighled with dICe id(:a, :'Illcl promised her
tlLlt if she did hr.r I his service
120 she'd be well rewarded for it. ~ They wrapped the noble child
in a linen garment,
and then in an embroidered silk robe, ~
which the lady's husband had brought back to her
125 from Constantinople, where he had been.
They had never seen anything so fine.
With a piece of ribbon
she tied a large ring onto the child's arm;
it contained a full ounce of pure gold, '
1]0 and had a ruby set in it, with lettering around the rim of the setting. Wherever the little girl might be found, everyone would k:1oW beyond doubt that she came from a noble family. , 15 ?\~:1 The damsel took the baby IIIcf Irfr Iht' chamber with ncr. I It 1I night, aflt'r dark,
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14째 that led into the forest.
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She went right through the woods with the baby, and out the other side without ever leaving the road. Then, far off to the right, she heard dogs barking and cocks crowing; she knew she would be able to find a Quickly, she wcnt in the direction of the barking. $0011 she came to a fine, prosperous lown. There W:lS ;rn abbey there, a thriving, well-en.dowed one; I believe it heldJa community of nun supervised by an abbess. The damsel saw the towers, walls, and steeple of the a and she hastened toward it, stopping at the front gate. She put down the child she was carr and knelt humbly to say a prayer. "0 God," she prayed, "by your holy if it is your will, protect this infant from death." When she'd finished praying, she looked behind her, saw a broad-limbed ash tree, its branch~s-thick with leaves; its trunk divided into four boughs. It had been planted as a shade tree. The girl took the baby in her arms and ran over to the ash tree, placed the child up in ~es an commending her to the true God. Then the girl returned to her mistre and told her what she'd done.
,,'
L: FrcJnc
THE LA IS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
~ There was a porter in the abbey,
whose job it was to open the abbey gate, to let in the people who had come 180 to hear the early service.
That morning he rose as early as usual,
lit the candles and the lamps,
rang the bells and opened the gate.
lIe noticed the clothes up in rhe :t~h rrec,
18~ :ul<llhlllll:h, Ih:lI ~lIl1leOllr 11111,\1 h,lVI' ,~I()lell rlll'lIl, allcl rlll'lI 1c-f1 rllelll Ihelr:, Ilr ,11,1'1'1 1I"Ii,r ,lIlylhi llg 1"1" A" 'I"" Illy 1I~ III d,l , hI' Wl'lll "V,', I" rill" II!' 1,,", "rd rllf' .1"I"r~, '1II,II""Il.1 rill', I,ilcllhrlt, /'/1,11,' g.lve d',llIk, III (~",I: Ilr d1c1l1ol Ir,lvr till' CIdlcl, hilI ICHI\( hCI' wilh him 1.0 hi, OWII dwellillg.
lit: 1.:1(1 a daughter who was a widow;
her hushand was dead and she had a child,
195 still in the cradic, whom she was nursing, The good man called her: "Daughter," he said, "get up! Light the candle, start the firef I've brought home a baby 200 that I found out there in the ash tree. Nurse her for me,
then get her warm and bathe her."
The daughter obeyed him; ,
she lit the fire and took the 'baby,
205 made her warm and gave her a good bath, tht:n nursed her.
()II till' child's arm they discovered the ring,
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the porter went to speak to her;
he wanted to tell her how, by chance,
he had fOJJ.,nd the child. The ~bbess ordered him to bring the child to her just as she was found. Thr poner went home, willinl~ly hroughr 'he rhilcl hack,
:Incl ,\h"wrcl hrr to rhr ahhes'.
Sh., nCllllilll'tllhc hahy doscly
.. lid s:lid ~hr would mise her,
would treal her as her niece.
She srrittly forhade the porter
to tcllthe truth about the child's discove She raised Ihe child herself,
and because she had been found in the a the abbess decided to name her "F resne" And so people called her. ~ The abbess did indeed treat her as and for a long time she grew up in priv she was raised entirely within Ihe walls of the abbey. When she reached the age where nature creales beauty, in all of Brittany there wasn't such a bea or so refined a gir~; -
>_
she was ~e and c~I~~ated in Jp-pearance and speech. -, Everyone who saw her loved her, praised her to the skies. Now at Dole there lived a good lord there's never been a better, before or sin 245 whose name I'lIlell you here: they called him Gurlln in Ihat region. I Ir heard about the young girl .11111 hI" (,.11 ill lovr wilh hrl,
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OF MARIE DE FRANCE
and on his way b;J.ck passed the abbey, where he stapped to ask after the damsel. The abbess introduced her to him. He saw that she was beautiful and cultivated, \ wise, refined, and well educated. If he couldn't win her love he'd consider himself very badly off indeed. But he was at a loss about how to proceed; if he came there often, the abbess would notice whot was going on, and he'd /I("vcr lay eyes on the damsel again, lIe hit upon ;I schellle: he would become :) benefactor of the ;Jbbey, give il so rnuch of his land that it wl)llid be enriched forever; he'd thus I':stablish a patron's right to live there, 50 that he could come and stay whenever he chose. To be a member of that community he gave generously of his goodsbut he had a motive other than receiving pardon for his sins. ~ He came there often and spoke to the girl; he pleaded so well, promised so much that she granted him what he desired. When he was sure of her love, he spoke seriously with her one day. "Beautiful one," he said, "now that you've made me your lover, 01.1e away from here and live with me. 1'111 ~1lI (' you know tlttt" y'''11 :111111 fOllnd out about us ,I,,"" I" "1'\1', i: i11\ " \'11" I" I Itllr 1"I'I~II,'II' ,,;,:'" IItlfll'r hl'r f()()f.
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I'll never let you downand I'll take good care of you." Since she loved him deeply, she willingly granled what he desired. She went away wilh him; he look her to his comic. She hrought her silk swaddling cloth and her ring that could turn alit to be very fortun:llc for her. The ahhess had given them to her and told hcr the circumstances in which she had been sent to her: she was nestled up in the ash tree, and whoever had abandoned her there had bestowed on her the garments and the ring. The abbess had received no other possessions with she had raised her as her niece. The girl kept the tokens,3 locked them in a chest. She took the chest away with her; she'd no intention of leaving it behind. ~ The knight who took her away loved and cherished her greatly, and so did all his men and servants. There wasn't one, big or little, who didn't love her'for her noble character, and honor her as well. ~ She lived with him for a long time, until the knight's vassals reproached him for it. They often urged him to marry a noble woman, and to get rid of this mistress of his. They'd be pleased if he had an heir who could sllcceed to
his land :1IId inhcrit:lI1ce;
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TilE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
it would be much to their disadvantage .if he was deterred by his concubine from having a child born in wedlock. They would no longer consider him their lord 325 or willingly serve him if he didn't do what they wanted. The knight agreed to take a wife according to their wishes, so they began to look about for one. 33° "My lord," they said, "quite ncar hy \) liv(:s a worthy man of your rank; he has a daughter who\is his heire~s . You'll gel much land if you take her. \ 335 TIle girl's name is Codre rI 1:l7.el I; J there isn't one so pretty in this region. I n exchange for the ash, when you get rid of her, you'll have the hazel. The hazel tree bears nuts and thus gives pleasure;. 34° the ash bears no fruil. Let us make the arrangements for the daughter; God willing, we will get her for you." ~ They arranged the marriage, obtained everyone's promise. 345 Alas! what a misfortune that these good men didn't know the real story about these girls 4 they were twin sisters! Fresne was hidden away, 35° and her lover was to marry the other. When she found out that he had done this, ..Ill" didn't sulk about it; I" '''''lilllH'd 10 serve her lord well 111,11'''''1'",1 "II Iii·, v:,·",~:lI~. iLl 'III III "I d" 1,,,,,,,,1,,,1,1. lItti ., 1\'0'1'1
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were all very sad on her account; sad because they were going to lose her. ~ On the dily of the betrothal, 360 her lord sent for his friends. The archbishop of Dole, anoth-;;-of his v;lssals, was there as well. They all brought his fiancee to him. Her mother came with her; 3(j5 she worried ahout this other girl whom the lord loved so much, h<;cause she might try to cause trouble, if she could, between Codre and her husband. The mother wants her expelled from the house; 37° she'll tell her son-i n-Iaw that he should marry her off to some good man; that way he'll be rid of her, she thinks. ~ They held the betrothals in grand style;
there was much celebrating. Fresne was in the private chamhers. 375 No matter what she saw, it didn't seem to hot her her; she didn't even seem a bit angry. She waited on the bride-to-be
380 courteously and efficiently. Everybody who saw this
thought it a great marvel. Her mother inspected her carefully, and began to love and admire her. 385 She said to herself thati! she'd known what kind of a person Fresne was, she wouldn't have tet her sufTer on account of ner dau wouldn't have taken Fresne's lord away from her.
JC)O
~ That night, Fresne went to make up the bed in whidl til(' Ilew hrilk W:l.s to sleep; ~h(' look (lff h('r cloak,
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395
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and c~lIrd the chamberlains to her. She instructed them concerniflg the manner in which the lord liked things clone, for she had seen it many times. When they had prepared the bcd, they threw a coverlet over it. The cloth was some old dress matcl'iul; the girl looked at it, it seemed to her poor stuff; th:lt bothered her. She opencd a chest, took out her birth g:lrmcnt, ~nd put it on her lord's bed. She did it to honor him; the archbishop would be coming there to bless the newlyweds in bed. That was part of his duty. When the chnmber WJ.s empty, the mother led her daughter in. She wished to prepare her for bcd, and told her to get undressed. She looked J.t the cloth on the bed; she'd never seen such a fine one except the one she'd given to her infant dilughtcr when she ~bandonecl her. , Then she suddenly remembered the castaway;-- her heart skipped II beat. She called the chamberlain: "Tell me," she said, "on your honor, wl.nc W:lS this fine silk cloth found?" "My l. .. ly," he replied, "I'll t<'ll yOIl: tI .. "III I" ",,/:1.. i" ii,. I d,,, I"~ II "VfI tI", I "vrd.., lilil
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4)0 :lnd the 1J.dy began questioning her: "My dear, don't hide anything from mel Where did you find this bC:lutiful cloth? How did you come by it r Who gave it to you? Tell me at once where it c~me from ,.. 435 The girl J.nswered her, "My 1J.dy, my aunt, who rJ.ised me she is an abhess-g:lve it to me and ordered me to take good care of it; whoever sent me to be raised by her 440 had given me this, :lnd also a ring." "Fair one, may I seC the ring?" "Yes, my lady, I'll be happy to show you ...· Then Fresne brought her the ring; she examined it carefully. 445 She recognized it very well, J.nd the silk cloth too. No doubt :lbout it, now she knew this was her own daughter. She didn't hide it, but cried out for all to hear, 450 "My dear, you are my dJ.ughlcrl" 9ut of pity for Fresne she fell over in a faint. When she regained consciousness, she quick Iy sent for her husband, 455 and he came, all in a fright, When he entered the bedroom, his wife threw herself at his feet, hugged and kissed him, asked his forgivenes~ for her crime. 460 He didn't know what this was all ahout;n "Wifc," he said, "Wh:ll arc yOIl t:llking- ahollt? Thnc's hccn nothing IHIt good Ilflwccn liS, 1'1I1':,rdon you as much :IS yOIl pkasd T('IIII1(' wltal" ho!lH',ing yOIl,"
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THE LArS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
465 "My lord, since you've forgiven me, I'll tell you-listen! Once, in my great wickedness, ] spo!;e foolishly about my neighbor, slandering her because she had twins. 470 I was really wronging myseff. I The I ruth is, ] then became pregnant and had twin daughters; so I hid one, had her abandoned in front of an abbey, wr:lppcd in our brocaded silk cloth, 475 we:Jri ng the ring that you gave me when you first courted me. I can't hide this from you: I've found the ring :It,d the cloth, and :lIsa discovered our daughter, 480 whom I lost through my folly; and this is she, right here, the brave, wise, and beautiful girl loved by the knight who has married her sister." 485 Her husband said, ''I'm delighted by this news; I was never so pleased. Since we've found our daughter, God has given us great joy, -:) instead of doubling the sin. 490 My daughter," he said, "come herel" The girl was overjoyed by the story she'd heard. 6 Her bther won't wait any longer; I.,. J:O("~ to get his son-in-law, 'H "lid 1'""1':1 III II.,. :Jrchhi,\l.op t h. ,.11 h" .. II.,. Uc!V,."IIII,., I" II i1,. , 1111:111 I., ,,01 rlH' ,"" Y a ;"1'1'" tI"11 I" ',I, VII I", II i1i;hLiiji 1!llvht,1
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5°0 that things should be left as they were that night; in the morning he would separate the knight from the woman he had married. They agreed to this plan. Next morning, the marriage was annulled \ \ 5°5 and the knight married his beloved; she was given to him by her father, ' who W:lS welI disposed toward her; he divided his inheritance with her. The father and his wife rem:lined at the feStivities. 510 for as long as they lasted, with their daughter. When they returned to their land, they took their daughter Cadre with them; later, in their country, she made a rich marriage too. 515 ~ When this adventure became known just as it happened, the fai of Fresne was made from it. It was named after its heroine.
l
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s
L E F RES N E (The Ash Tru)
VIRTUALLY ALL readers of Marie's lais agree on the ch effectiveness of Lc Fresne. Its adroit combination durable motifs in European folktale :md fiction pays Marie's craftsmanship as a storyteller, for the interactio the t1lf(~C e1(~ment5 of the plot is :I~ unforced as it is The first motif is the rornan<;c,of :\ heroinc (or hcro "bandoncd, in infancy, hy hcr nohle parents, is fo rai~cd hy hc"cvolrni f"$I('r parents, [\lui who ,ll('n fall "nly I" I... lI"I'.II('",.d wilh th,. I",·. "f hrr 1"·I,,vl'c1I,l 1"1:111" 0.,,,", Thl' 1"",.I/:""i'I's tl\'" ·,I"li,,,, ill 1:1" is ,I ,. rI .., I.,. ,,,1"1",, r1" ... I.~ I" rI ..- ;.1. "III""lIi"lI .,1 ,.
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THE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
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in her possession when she was abandoned, and the story ends with a double "recovery"-marriage to the beloved and recon ciliation with the repentant parents. (A popular version of this plot is embodied in the Greck romance Daphnis and CMo~.) In the second of Marie's plot motifs, a wicked woman who falsely accuses another of a crime is placed by fortune in the position of appearing to have committed the same crime. To protect herself (or as a punishrntnt) she Imes her child, and years later, when she accidwtally finds the child again, is impelkcl to repCllt;'lnce ;'Ind confession, thereby winning the righl to k(:cr htr offspring. The fin:ll motif of Fr~$TI~ is the female Job or pallent Griselda, as sbe is ealkd in the later mediev;1! versions of Uoceaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer. A young woman of low r:lnk is chosen by a nohlem:ln as his consort; her devotion is severely tested by the husband or by fortune, but she remains bithful in adversity and her virtue is suitably recognized at the story's happy ending. In Le Fr~sn~, the heroine's growth from helpless infant foundling to a young woman of great beauty and moral stature provides her circular journey away from and back to her parents with a strong clement of progress;' it imparts to the fortuitous events of the conclusion a moral force and, above all, permits a seamless joining of the three plot elements. At the beginning of the story, Fresne's mother sbnderously ac cuses a neighbor of adultery for bearing twin children (accord ing to the popular belief that two children in one birth point to two fathers); when she herself bears twins, she realizes she bas hrought about her own disgrace. Since she prefers offending God to shaming herself, she preparcs to murder one of the children. She is dissuaded by one of her damsels, who volun teers instead to leave the child at the gate of a monastery (a not III1("Olllln')I1 fate for unwanted children in the Middle Ages), wl,rl(' ir will '('crive :I good upbrillging without hringing grief
ships: having been nurtured by her mistress, and cherished her, the girl is now in a positio earlier protection with a reciprocal manifestatio moment when it will do her lady the most go prefigures Freslle's crucial response of selfless lord, Gurlln, out of gratitude for his love. Even is about to marry Codre :lIld ahandon Fre dignify it, p!a,es her prized possession, the lux in which she was wrapped by her mother, on of Gurun and Codre. By this gesture, Fresne her mother's discovery of her identity and thu the lai's double denouement: the mother confe her husband and receives her lost daughter family, and Fresne, her noble lineage thus rev Gurlln in fT1arriage. The symbolic act of covering the bed of her a less lover is an emblem of Fresne's self-sacrific doxically, wins her back her full identity as d wife. It also stands as testimony to her capaci action hased on gratitude-an element of mora characler that imposes linearity on the cycles of romance. Finally, the placing of the swaddlin marriage bed is an image of the continuity f to generation of the impulse to shelter those clo ideally, all our fellow humans-in the protecti love. This impulse to protect and nurture ru lai, exemplified not only by Fresne and the m~ the abbess, and even by the old porter of t discovers the infant Fresne and brings her at o widowed daughter so the infant can he nurse position of lost hushand and found child sugge of this romance world in which love and nurtu in order to give moral meaning to the: cycle of de Even Fresnc's mother, in ;'In earlier time, h;1( m(sdJi'J~, :IIlJ the v;lSs:lls who force (:lInlll to ! for Codl'r (IInknown ((j ,hl'lII. F,(""I\C"~ .·:i~r"l) thr .k·:i,r .hlll ,h.. if 111,,1 1,.lv,· ll,ild, .. n wl,"
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THE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
I.e Fresne
heritage and protect them from harm: i.e., be their feudal foster parents. All these instances of nurture find their central symbol in the great shade tree that gives Fresne her name. Gurun's followers interpret Fresne's name in a negative sense, as a tree that, unlike the hazel (fa Codre), be:lrs no fruit; Marie, how ever, intends us to see the n:lme prolcptic:llly: as the :Ish tree once protected its names:tkc, and as she has heell nllrllJred hy the ahbess, so will she, in "protecting" Curun will. her mantic, estahlish her right to become his wife alld the; lIurtul'cr of his hildren. 2 Set in the midst of such a p<:rv:,sive p:tllern, Fresllc's mother's rcfllsallo nurture he;r (bughter at birth appears :ts a viobtioll of the lai's flll1d:lnwntal moral principle. Fortunately, in the optimistic world of I.e FresTu, it is a bre:!ch that can be
protective love over the obstacles of human weak circumstance, and fortune.
mended and repented at the right moment. Marie encloses the main movement and theme of her miniature romance in a world of charming, sentimental de tails: the tableau of village sounds that tells the meschine she has come to the end of her search for a place to leave her infant charge; her prayer as she deposits the foundling in the tree; and the routine of the porter, interrupted by his discovery of the foundling. Marie's portrait of Gurun, the young lord who falls in love with Fresne without ever having seen her
(d. Equitan's similar passion from afar, :tnd the troubadour tradition of distant love, amor de lonh) and J:tter arranges to give large don:ttions to the abbey as an excuse to see her regularly, is also affectionate and sentimental. His love for Fresne is pure and complete, and when he takes her away from the abbey to live with him as his mistress, Marie uses the same words to describe his treatment of her-mtlt la cheri e mut rama-that she has used to describe Fresnc's mother's conduct tow:trd the mcschine: et mut [/'otl amce e mut cherie ("and hl" shl" 1 loved :lIld cherished her much").
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TIll" h:trmony of plot motifs :tnd (themes) endows I.L F,.-csnc Willi /:' III 11 kl" l'c"rfrClir)ll, :1': M:II'ic,«;khr:ltcs ,hc. triumph of
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I, TI,e interaction of circular and linear ekmenls is a mark ticaeed rOOlance plot. The clement of movemen! away from ano (represenled by a st:d,le situation involvinl' family ties, a wellrank, or lhe like) reOeclS a percel'tion of the cyclicality of hum ohen represenled ;wn0l'r.lphic.lly in lhc Middle AgCi by the re of ('trlllnc. Thr rrot:1~()nist's endurance or this circular moveme wieh .n irreversible proe<-ss of phv,ieal or moral growlh. so chat ".;111 lO('Idy 10 reI urn to his "a"inl' point 'by the end of the IJ:IS in (:1('( tx({)II'1C a vny ditTcrC'nt p('rson in Iht process, and his old situJfion through new eyes. as it were. 2. On Ihe sil'nificance of Fresnc's name, soc R, w. Hanni Nallles in Medieval Literalure," Nam~r .6 ('968), 337-338, a by Mickel on Maric', irony, ciled in the bibliography.