Guillaume De Machaut

Originally published in 1988, this volume includes the full text and translation of The Judgment of the King of Navarre by Guillaume de Machaut, alongside textual and biographical notes includiging the life of the author, comparative studies of Chaucer and Machaut, and criticism and study guides.

Originally published in 1988, this volume includes the full text and translation of The Judgment of the King of Navarre by Guillaume de Machaut, alongside textual and biographical notes includiging the life of the author, comparative studies of Chaucer and Machaut, and criticism and study guides.

Guillaume de Machaut is the most important poet and composer of late medieval France. His unique and inventive output is the subject of this edition of Machaut's poetry. Le Jugement Du Roy De Behaigne and Remede De Fortune was published in collaboration with the Chaucer Library. These two works are among de Machaut’s most important artistically in terms of their formal innovations and their influence on contemporaries, notably Geoffrey Chaucer, and the associated Lay de plour, presented here with its music. This volume includes the French originals and facing English translations.

Guillaume de Machaut is the most important poet and composer of late medieval France. His unique and inventive output is the subject of this edition of Machaut's poetry. Le Jugement Du Roy De Behaigne and Remede De Fortune was published in collaboration with the Chaucer Library. These two works are among de Machaut’s most important artistically in terms of their formal innovations and their influence on contemporaries, notably Geoffrey Chaucer, and the associated Lay de plour, presented here with its music. This volume includes the French originals and facing English translations.

Guillaume de Machaut, the most important poet and musician of fourteenth-century France, had considerable influence on subsequent generations of writers in both France and England. With this scholarly translation, Minnette Gaudet and Constance B. Hieatt made his long-neglected narrative poem, the Dit de l’alerion – a treatise on love and falconry – available to students of medieval literature. In the poem, Machaut defines the problems and pleasures of courtly love by comparing them to those of falconry, a sport which modern readers know little about. The introduction and notes to this edition provide valuable information about the art of falconry, thus clarifying aspects of the poem which might be hard to understand today. The scholarly notes and introduction furnish explications and variant readings of obscure passages and comments on wordplay. A running summary of the contents of the poem is also provided in the margins.