The dit amoureux An Essay on The Kingis Quair and The Testament of Cresseid

Abstract

Although less pervasive in Scotland than in England, and with major Scottish writing coming under a strong English influence, French maintained its presence and its seminal impact on literature in the Scots vernacular, in both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This is especially true for what is, arguably, the most important single genre in late medieval Scotland, high courtly narrative — what C. S. Lewis called the allegory of love. Late medieval Scottish poetry can benefit from renewed scrutiny in light of the analogous French tradition of the dit amoureux (tale of love).In this article, I hope to situate Scottish books in a larger intertextual context, one that is international and European. Instead of the microanalysis of Scots texts and their French sources, this essay is concerned primarily with the broader issues of genre, mode, structure, and style. The first two major tales of love in the grand manner in Scots are The Kingis Quair, attributed to James Stewart (King James I), and The Testament of Cresseid by Robert Henryson. These two poems relate to Chaucer, of course, but also to well-known works by Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and, in Henryson’s case, Alain Chartier. They are admirable test cases demonstrating how greater attention to the French can help situate James’s and Henryson’s texts in their cultural milieu and also help account for their extraordinary complexity and maturity as works of art.