Poetry and Metamorphosis in the OF Piramus et Tisbe

Abstract

This article examines the processes underlying the translation of Ovid by the author of the Old French Piramus et Tisbé poem (ca. 1150). In particular, I show through a close examination of the poem that Piramus et Tisbé is a carefully and artfully crafted piece, whose author explored and applied the rhetorico-poetic techniques he had learned in school to shed light upon his ancient source. As such, the Old French Piramus et Tisbé constitutes not only a translation, but also a sort of poetic commentary (or gloss) on Ovid, and provides us with a valuable insight into the process of vernacular reading and rewriting that Marie de France, in the Prologue to the Lais (ca. 1165), will refer to as "gloser la lettre."