"Equitan" is a Breton lai

Breton lai

A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...

, a type of narrative poem, written by Marie de France

Marie de France

Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...

 sometime in the 12th century. The poem belongs to what is collectively known as The Lais of Marie de France

The Lais of Marie de France

The Lais of Marie de France are a series of twelve short narrative Breton lais by the poet Marie de France. They are written in the Anglo-Norman and were probably composed in the late 12th century. The short, narrative poems generally focus on glorifying the concept of courtly love through the...

. Like the other lais in the collection, Equitan is written in the Anglo-Norman language

Anglo-Norman language

Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....

, a dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

, in rhyming octosyllabic couplets. In this 320 line poem, the author cautions that those who plot to harm another person may find only their own misfortune.

Plot summary

Equitan, the king of Nanz, falls in love with the beautiful wife of his seneschal

Seneschal

A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...

. The king agonises between his feelings for her and his loyalty towards the seneschal. When Equitan declares his sentiments for her, she is incredulous because of the difference in rank between them. He convinces her that his feelings are genuine and he would be willing to be her servant. The couple begins their affair.

As the affair progresses, Equitan's advisors pressure him to marry. One day, the seneschal's wife tearily asks the king if she will one day be set aside in favour of another, more highly-born woman who can become his wife. The king tells her that she is his only love, and that he would marry her if not for her husband. The wife suggests the idea of killing the seneschal by preparing a bath of boiling water. Her idea is that the king and her husband will take a bath, and then the king will claim that the seneschal mysteriously died while bathing.

Later on, the king and the seneschal go on a hunting trip. They stay in a lodge where there are two bathtubs side by side in the bedroom. When the seneschal goes out to fetch something, the king and the woman prepare their trap, then they have intercourse. The seneschal returns to the lodge and finds the bedroom door locked. He bangs on the door so persistently that the door bursts open, showing the couple in each other's arms. The king, ashamed by his nakedness, tries to hide himself and runs straight into the tub of boiling water. The seneschal, angered by his wife's infidelity, tosses her into the tub as well, and the unfaithful couple are scalded to death.

Themes

The purpose of Equitan seems to be didactic. Marie summarizes the lesson of the lay, “Whoever wants to hear some sound advice/ can profit from this example:/ he who plans evil for another/ may have that evil rebound back on him” (lines 307-310). The tub of boiling water becomes a symbol, according to scholars Hanning and Ferrante, "of the trickster tricked, and of the immoderate lover fatally burned by his ungoverned passion” (Marie de France 69).

The love described is irresponsible because the lovers give in to passion while knowing the negative consequences, it is unbalanced, and it prevents the king from having a legitimate heir, a cause of social insecurity. It is inappropriate because it causes the king to break the bond of loyalty to his seneschal and the wife to break marriage vows with her husband without good reason.

See also

• Anglo-Norman literature
  Anglo-Norman literature
  Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm.-Introduction:...
  
  
• Courtly love
  Courtly love
  Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
  
  
• Medieval literature
  Medieval literature
  Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages . The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works...
  
  
• Medieval French literature
  Medieval French literature
  Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century....
  
  

External links

DEAD LINK! Equitan text in Old French

English verse translation by Judith P. Shoaf, in PDF format