- by Marie de France(ca. 1160–1215)Although currently less popular than her LAIS, particularly her well-known LANVAL, the Fables of MARIE DE FRANCE were her best-known work in the Middle Ages,
- by Marie de France(ca. 1160–1215)Although currently less popular than her LAIS, particularly her well-known LANVAL, the Fables of MARIE DE FRANCE were her best-known work in the Middle Ages, with some 25 extant manuscripts dating from the 13th through 15th centuries. This collection of 102 fables—short didactic narratives ending with explicit moral lessons in the manner of Aesop—is the first such collection surviving in a vernacular European language. In her 40-line prologue, Marie claims that Aesop translated his fables from Greek into Latin for King Romulus, who intended them for the edification of his young son.In her 20-line epilogue, she reveals that she has translated the fables into French from an earlier English version by King Alfred. She says that (like Aesop) she is making the translation at the behest of a noble patron, one Count William (a claim that has led some critics to suggest that the collection was intended as a “mirror for princes,” such as, for example, Thomas HOCCLEVE’s 15th-century Regiment of Princes).Marie also asserts in the epilogue her own authorship for the fables, ending the whole collection with a moral to the effect that “only a fool will allow himself to be forgotten.” There is no evidence that King ALFRED THE GREAT ever produced a collection of fables (though a number of PROVERBS were attributed to him), so that allusion is puzzling. It appears that 40 of Marie’s fables were translated from the fourth-century Latin text known as Romulus Nilantinus, but the remainder of the fables are gathered from a variety of other sources, including Arabic collections, and it appears that Marie was the first to present the collection in this particular form. The majority of Marie’s fables—about 60 of them—use human-like animals as the sole characters, and in a manner that recalls the popular ROMAN DE RENART cycle,Marie’s beasts inhabit a feudal society, in which the Lion is the king—though sometimes greedy and prideful. The Wolf is presented as a breaker of oaths, and the Fox as a trickster who, i