The Literary Background of the Chantefable

Abstract

T HE new edition of Aucassin et Nicolette by Mario Roques I once more offers occasion for the discussion of its peculiar literary form, that of alternate prose and verse. In his Introduction, Roques briefly discusses cette forme originale et unique dans la litterature du moyen age, 2 and after rejecting the various definitions of Aucassin as a roman, a conte, a nouvelle, a fabliau, and a recit, he arrives at the conclusion that it is a mime. 3 If a technical name must be found for the type of literature which Aucassin represents, why not call it, as did its author, a cantefable? If it is felt that this term needs explanation, we can find none better than that of Gaston Paris, who has definitely explained the chantefable as ce melange de prose et de vers, de morceaux oiu l'on chante, et de morceaux ou l'on dit et conte etfable. 4 So far as we know, Aucassin et Nicolette is the only specimen of French literature in the Middle Ages which is composed of verse and music and prose, and thus it is rightly called unique. But if we view the chantefable as being in its elementary form simply a literary style in which prose and verse operate together as a unit in narrative function, and if we disregard the special characteristic of musical notation on the manuscript of Aucassin, then we shall be able to match it with other pieces of literature written in this style in both earlier and later times. Examples of prose-and-verse in which the verse is purely adventitious and does not form an integral part of the narrative vehicle have not been included among the following quotations. That Aucassin represents a type of literature which in France was eventually attracted to the theatre, is a matter we shall not discuss. Our interest in the document lies not so much in its