Adolescence, anxiety and amusement in versions of Paris et Vienne

Abstract

Idyllic romances such as Paris et Vienne, which exists in three different versions, explore the tensions created by depicting young lovers in conflict with their parents on the issue of whom they want to marry. Whilst the original version, as preserved in Paris, BnF fr. 1480, uses comedy in order to present the hero and heroine as tricksters whose flouting of parental authority evokes ambivalence in the reader, the Burgundian redaction (Brussels, KBR 9632/3) reduces this emphasis on the couple’s duplicitousness by ending the tale with a lengthy retrospective validation of Paris as chivalric hero and true aristocrat. By contrast, the shorter version of Paris et Vienne, which is extant in Paris, BnF fr. 20044, largely strips the narrative of its capacity to amuse and extracts from the tale an uncompromisingly serious message about the moral dilemmas and emotional anguish undergone by young lovers intent on pursuing their personal desires.