Guillaume de Dole

Manuscript Guillaume de Dole is extant in a single manuscript in the Vatican Library, MS Regina 1725. Todd dates it in the 14th century, others in the late 13th century. The manuscript contains: • Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, by Chrétien de Troyes (first part missing), 1-34b; • Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, also by Chrétien, 34c-68b; • Guillaume de Dole, 68c-98c; • Meraugis de Portlesguez, by Raoul de Houdenc, 98d-130d. The manuscript's first known owner was 16th-century French historian Claude Fauchet; it was part of his extensive collection, and it is due to "Fauchet's zeal as a collector" that the manuscript and therefore the poem are preserved. During the French Wars of Religion, Fauchet fled Paris and his collection was dispersed. The next mention of the manuscript is as part of the library of Paul Pétau, and in 1650 it was acquired by Christina, Queen of Sweden. The Vatican library acquired the manuscript after 1689. Date and title The opening lines of the poem contain a dedication to Miles de Nanteuil, an early 13th-century churchman who was elected (but not confirmed) in 1201 as archbishop of Reims, and later became bishop of Beauvais, in northern France; he died circa 1235. According to Todd, the nobleman de Nanteuil may have been too young and wild to be elevated to the archbishopric, but this would have made him a good candidate for Renart's dedication. This, plus evidence based on other names found in the poem, led Todd to conclude that the poem was composed around the year 1200. Later critics and researchers, however, date the poem between 1204 and 1228, and tend toward the earlier date. In the manuscript, the poem is called Romans de la Rose (l. 11), and hence Le Roman de la Rose, but it is often referred to as Roman de la Rose, or Guillaume de Dole in order to avoid confusion with Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose; Guillaume de Dole is a subtitle added by Fauchet. F. M. Warren of Yale University, in a 1908 article, is one of the early proponents of identifying Renart as the author of all three, based on versification, phrasing, and vocabulary, and places the development of his poetic talent between 1195 and 1205. The next-to-last line of the poem contains an anagram on Renart's name: "...qu'il enTRA EN Religion." ==Content==

Plot The story begins at the court of Emperor Conrad, who for all of his good qualities has one defect: he refuses to get married, especially since, as he says, people no longer are as valiant and as noble as they used to be. His minstrel, Jouglet, tells him of Guillaume de Dole and his sister Liénor, and quickly the emperor falls in love with her, although he does not actually see her until the story's denouement. Guillaume is summoned to the court where he excels in chivalric exploits; the emperor tells him he wishes to marry his sister. Conrad's jealous seneschal interferes and visits Guillaume's family, where he gives his mother a valuable ring and gains her confidence; from her he learns that Liénor has a particular birthmark in the shape of a rose on her thigh. This knowledge is presented as proof that the seneschal has taken her virginity. As for the seneschal, Liénor implores Conrad to be merciful, and he is sent away as a Templar to join a crusade. Themes The plot of Guillaume revolves around the common theme of the gageure, a young man who, because of a wager (in the case of Guillaume, because of jealousy) needs to find a young woman's favor. He fails in his enterprise but pretends publicly to have succeeded, causing the ruin of a husband (if the gageure had claimed to have succeeded with another man's wife) or, in this case, the despair of a brother. Usually the young man's story is believed at first because he reveals an intimate detail about a young woman, who then has to prove her innocence. Beginning with Michel Zink, whose influential 1979 monograph Roman rose et rose rouge: Le Roman de la rose ou de Guillaume de Dole ushered in a new era of criticism, critics have recognized Guillaume de Dole as a work of literature about literature, a self-referential poem that comments on the improbability of some of its own plot elements and on its own fictional status, encouraging a trend in studies of Renart and his work. Songs The romance contains some 46 chansons, which can be separated into two groups, according to Hollier and Bloch. The first group contains sixteen "aristocratic" chansons courtoises on the topic of courtly love, attributed to specific trouvères or troubadours (including Gace Brulé, Le Chastelain de Couci, Guillaume de Ferrières (the Vidame de Chartres), Jaufre Rudel, and Bernart de Ventadorn). A second group consists of thirty mostly anonymous songs of a more popular nature, such as three chansons de toile and three other ballads, two pastourelles, and twenty chansons à danser (dance songs). Incorporated also is a laisse of the chanson de geste Gerbert de Metz. In its hybrid form, Guillaume de Dole is "the first extant example of the combined use of narrative and lyric in French." The mixed form proved to be popular and was soon found in other works, including Aucassin and Nicolette (early 13th century); Gautier de Coincy's Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame (c. 1218–1233); Gerbert de Montreuil's Le Roman de la Violette (c. 1230), which incorporates some forty songs; and Tibaut's Roman de la Poire (c. 1250), which incorporates a series of refrains. By the end of the century the form had become canonical. Female protagonist The female protagonist, Liénor, is notable because of her active nature: she herself unmasks the seneschal. She found a quick successor in the active female protagonist of Tibaut's Roman de la Poire. At least one recent publication states that Liénor might make a justifiable claim to being the romance's true hero. ==Editorial and critical history==

The first mention of Guilllaume de Dole after the Middle Ages is found in the work of Claude Fauchet, who is generally considered to have studied the Vatican Regina manuscript (instead of another, now lost, manuscript). In 1844, Adelbert Keller published extracts of the poem including some of the chansons; the chansons acquired some fame, and in 1850 Darenberg and Renan traveled to Rome to study the manuscript, publishing a larger number of the chansons in 1855. It wasn't until 1870 that all of the chansons had been published. A lengthy analysis, partial edition, and summary in English was published by Henry Alfred Todd of Johns Hopkins University, in 1886. The poem was finally published in its entirety in 1893 by Gustave Servois Modern editions and translations • • • • • Critical studies • • ==References==