MARIE DE FRANCE 



Whether Marie was connected with the 

 Court of Henry the Second and his brilliant 

 and artistic queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, where 

 learned men and poets congregated, we do not 

 know, but it seems a very fair conjecture that 

 she was. Not only does she dedicate her 

 principal work to the king and his son, Count 

 William, but her stories are coloured with the 

 courtly life and ideas of her time, notwith- 

 standing the simplicity of the fundamental 

 theme. It is doubtful whether any one un- 

 acquainted with the teaching of the Courts of 

 Love, such as they were in the twelfth century, 

 would have made the compulsory quest of love 

 the keynote of a story, as, for instance, Marie 

 does in the " Lay of Guigemar." These Courts of 

 Love, though not so elaborate, yet seemingly as 

 imperious, as those of the fourteenth century, 

 formed one of the semi-serious pastimes of the 

 Middle Ages, and although it may be that they 

 were often mere forms of entertainment, no self- 

 respecting person could afford to disregard their 

 rules or decisions. The cardinal doctrine was 

 that love was necessary to a man's moral, social, 

 and aesthetic training. Hence if it did not arise 

 of itself, it must be sought for, and, like its 

 counterpart in the spiritual world, come at, if 

 needs be, through much tribulation. 



Owing to Henry's possessions in France 

 through inheritance, marriage, and the many 

 ties of relationship which united the royal 

 families of both countries, England and France 



33 D 



