Madame Meed:Fauvel, Isabella, and the French Circumstances ofPiers Plowman

Abstract

This essay returns to the uses of the Roman de Fauvel in Piers Plowman, in order to show the unusual depth of Langland’s engagement with that poem and Fauvel’s close association with Isabella of France, Edward II’s much-maligned widow - and in turn to claim that the figure of Meed begins in part as a topical satire on Isabella herself. In this and other ways, Meed epitomizes ‘topicality’. Yet the process of revising Piers Plowman (the essay argues) included increasing distance from any one topical meaning. The essay traces the literary and historical reputation of Isabella, and measures that against more immediate evidence of her resolutely pro-French patronage and cultural agenda in the realm of Essex and London to which the poet was probably connected. This context helps explain Langland’s response to the topical Fauvel, a surprising spur for his own assessments of literary value and his production of a unique selfreflective and philosophical satire.