![]() ![]() “‘The power elicited by the rite of homage is born out of the extremely intimate nature of the physical contact of the unequal participants…The sense of touch, around which homage is centered, is the most sensitive form of personal communication” (Gloria Thomas Gilmore, “Conflicting Codes of Conduct: Marie de France’s Equitan,” Utah Foreign Language Review 2 (1990): 102. Because of their extreme brevity, averaging 478 lines, the Lais invite close scrutiny of detail.Įlizabeth Wayland Barber, Women’s Work The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times (New York: W. ![]() The Old French Lais, which, with her translation of King Alfred’s English version of Aesop’s Fables, comprise her major claim to fame, draw on Celtic legends of heroism. Sometime between 11 she composed 12 “lais,” or short, perhaps originally sung “ditties” that each narrate a romantic tale. We believe her to be a woman primarily on the basis of the feminine name she uses to introduce her work: “Oëz, seignurs, ke dit Marie ” (author’s translation) ( Guigemar line 3). Mane de France wrote somewhere in England and/or the north of France, presumably for the English court of Henry II (r. ![]()
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