Abstract
Abstract The medieval prosimetrum challenges many prevalent theories of the lyric because of the way it seems to personalize highly conventional and anonymous songs when placed within the context of a narrative frame. The article analyzes a tradition of knights listening to other knights complaining in song of their resistant loves. Palamoun's violent reaction to Arcite's rondeau in the Knight's Tale repeats a pattern found frequently in the Arthurian prosimetrum Tristan en prose: a knight stops in the woods, overhears another knight's song, and then endeavors to interpret the lyric's oblique references to the dame, often with violent consequences. For both Palamoun and Tristan, the referential nature of framed songs becomes a problem, especially when that overheard song could potentially be about one's lady.
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